SPRINGFIELD — For the second day in a row, police had to search buildings after someone emailed a bomb threat to a school.
As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, searches from police turned up no credible threats in both cases.
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On Tuesday, News Center 7 saw people forced out of Clark State’s main campus and Global Impact Stem Academy, which is a high school on the college’s campus.
Someone sent bomb threats to Clark State, Wittenberg University, and Clark County Job and Family Services on Tuesday.
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It comes after threats were sent to Springfield City Schools, the city, and county buildings on Monday.
Ron Colbert came to Clark State to drop off his daughter for a placement test, but the threat closed the college.
“We’ve had too many of those in our country, and I think it’s getting ridiculous,” Colbert said.
They followed Monday’s emailed bomb threats at county and city buildings, plus several Springfield City Schools, and dozens of public buildings and schools near Columbus.
“This is insane. It’s crazy what’s going on,” Ronald Ayala said.
In every case so far, investigators said they found no credible threats.
“Even when we don’t find actual devices, these are serious crimes,” Dr. Art Jipson said.
He is an associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Dayton.
“It requires a full emergency response. You have to close buildings, you have to conduct thorough searches,” Jipson said.
He studies these crimes and said nationally, law enforcement has noted these kinds of ongoing threats, hundreds spanning several states just this year.
And that there’s been an escalation of these kinds of threats and menace around political issues.
“So this doesn’t surprise me, given the federal plans of kind of an ICE operation in Springfield, possibly other parts of Ohio,” Jipson said.
Monday’s investigation involved the FBI.
Within hours of the searches, the Clark County Sheriff said, “… the investigation into these threats initially indicates that they are hoaxes from overseas actors."
Jipson said forensic tools available at the federal law enforcement level likely led to the indication so quickly.
“The FBI, amongst other agencies, are able to track down far more effectively than local law enforcement, sort of an end or a starting point,” Jipson said.
On Tuesday, the FBI’s Cincinnati Office provided a brief statement to News Center 7’s John Bedell:
“The FBI is aware of the threat made to Clark State today. We do not have any further details to release.”
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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