Police Response to Bomb Threat at Quaker Ridge School

Heathcote Principal Maria Stile and School Board VP Pam Fuehrer cut the ribbon at the new Heathcote Cafeteria.This Week from the Scarsdale Schools:

Bomb Threat
On the morning of October 24 a written threat was found at Quaker Ridge Elementary School. Although a determination was made that the threat was not credible, a decision to evacuate students and staff from the school was made in collaboration with our Chief of Safety, Security, and Emergency Management and the Scarsdale Police Department. This decision was made out of an abundance of caution and allowed law enforcement to conduct further inspection of the school.

The Scarsdale Police Department, in conjunction with the Westchester County Bomb Squad, conducted a detailed security sweep of the building, including the use of specially trained K-9's. Students were temporarily relocated to the Scarsdale Middle School in accordance with district emergency response procedures. NYS mandates that specific information related to emergency response procedures be kept confidential for security reasons. Additional information has been disseminated to Quaker Ridge parents through email and via phone. All students and staff are safe.

In response to further questions about police response to the incident, we received the following statement from Captain Thomas Altizio of the Scarsdale Police Department. He said, "The information that I will give you is based upon facts, derived from the GPS tracking of our patrol cars, the recording of our radio transmissions and telephone calls and the modem time stamps of data sent to and from the police car's mobile computers. You may find this factual information to be contrary to some of the misinformation that is spread on social media."

"The Police Desk received the call at 10:29 am. After the approximately one minute phone call from the school, the Patrol Supervisor and responding units were immediately notified of the incident over the radio and began responding to the school at approximately 10:31 am. All of the cars that responded to the school were already on other calls (aided case, DOA, prisoner court transport), and immediately redirected to the Quaker Ridge school. The entire administrative staff of HQ either responded directly to the school to assist or picked up the assignments that other patrol officers redirected from, such as the prisoner transport and DOA. The Westchester County Bomb Squad was requested by the Police Desk, and advised of a 30 minute response time. Once Scarsdale units were in route via radio dispatch, the Computer Aided Dispatch was entered and transmitted at 10:34. The first units were on scene at 10:37am. From the time they were notified and redirected from the other calls, Scarsdale units were on scene in 5 to 6 minutes. The response of the Westchester County Bomb Squad and Special Operations Bomb detecting dogs was longer, due to their activity and the distance they respond from. The children and faculty had already been moved from the area in question to a different part of the school, then placed on buses for relocation to the Middle School. During the entire event the police department worked closely with the School District's new Safety Liaison. After the school was evacuated, it was swept by explosive detecting canines, bomb technicians, police officers and school staff and it was determined that there was no threat. The scene was turned back over to the school staff at 12:35 pm.

The investigation into the source of the threat is being handled by the Scarsdale Police Department Investigations Section and is ongoing."

Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies
Also this week, ceremonies were held to mark the official opening of new facilities at Edgewood and Heathcote Schools. Students at Edgewood are now enjoying a large, multi-room library and media center which opened in September, and students at Heathcote are making good use of a new cafeteria and individual instruction rooms along with a spacious new entry.