Two Barrington Police officers accompany high school students out of the building as they evacuate Barrington High School following a second bomb threat at the school on Monday, April 17, 2023, in Barrington. Barrington 220 School District sent out alerts saying, ”Out of an abundance of caution, BHS is evacuating the building after receiving a second bomb threat… Students who walk or drive to school have been dismissed for the day… BHS students who rely on district transportation should make their way to the normal bus loading area and will begin to board buses to be transported home. Students who are picked up by parents should make their own way to the west lot for normal parent pick-up.” (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Police in Barrington are still investigating after multiple “computerized bomb threats” made to Barrington High School on Monday at first led to no lockdown but then prompted an evacuation of the school.
The initial alleged bomb threat phoned in to the school that morning was quickly identified by Barrington police and other authorities as textbook hoaxes, the police deputy chief told Pioneer Press.
“When the phone call came in, it was a digital, computerized voice. It came in from a six-digit phone number that didn’t come back to anything,” police Deputy Chief John Burke said about the first call BHS received Monday. “Right away, those were the cues we’d read about for the past two years and that [don’t] hold a lot of credibility.”
Burke said the department has not made any arrests in connection with the incident Monday, but is aware of videos circulating online that appear to show a threat being made to the school.
Burke said whomever made the threat used a “digital, computerized voice,” presumably to avoid being identified.
Pioneer Press obtained one of the alleged videos circulating but has not been able to independently confirm its authenticity. Police would not comment on the specific video Pioneer Press obtained.
“There’s some different videos floating around, (and Barrington police are) looking at all of them,” Burke said.
He said the Barrington Police Department and Barrington School District 220, which BHS is part of, have been holding regular security meetings where they have been preparing for the possibility of a swatting call — where fake threats are phoned in, leading to a large emergency response — and were able to determine quickly on Monday that the threat was not credible.
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