Battle Mountain High School bomb threat originated outside the United States, officials say
Latest threat is yet another swatting incident
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Local and federal law enforcement agencies have determined that Wednesday morning’s bomb threat at Battle Mountain High School in Edwards was not credible and originated outside of the United States.
The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Operations Unit, along with other county agencies, conducted several comprehensive searches of the school property. Those searches utilized bomb detection dogs and assistance from state and federal agencies. No credible threat was discovered.
The Sheriff’s Office released a statement at 5 p.m. on Wednesday confirming that the threat originated outside of the United States and was conveyed through a virtual private network.
Eagle County School District Superintendent Phil Qualman and Battle Mountain Principal Jason Mills sent an email to Battle Mountain families and staff at 3 p.m. confirming that the property had been deemed safe.
“After an initial clearing of the campus by our local SWAT team and a second sweep of BMHS by a bomb-sniffing dog team from Jefferson County, both parties and the FBI have confirmed this to be a swatting incident and the building will be safe for students and staff to return to their classrooms tomorrow,” the email said.
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Virtual private networks are commonly used in swatting which is a cyber harassment technique to send an armed emergency response to a particular address.
The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and partner agencies are preparing to “hold a community meeting to address recent events, answer questions, and discuss safety measures moving forward,” according to the Sheriff’s Office release. The date, time and location of the meeting will be shared soon.
Classes will resume at Battle Mountain on Thursday on an eight-period schedule, and operate as normal for the rest of the week, as will extracurricular activities. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to conduct heightened patrols around district schools on Thursday.
“Students are expected to be at school,” Qualman and Mills’ email said.
The Battle Mountain building will remain closed overnight to staff and students. Students that left their backpacks, bus passes, devices and other personal effects in the school during the evacuation will be unable to retrieve them until Thursday morning. School staff are prepared to accommodate students whose belongings remain in the building.
“Our Transportation Department knows this and will not penalize BMHS students without their bus pass tomorrow morning,” the email said. “Similarly, teachers are aware that students may have left devices behind while evacuating and will work with students on completion of assignments.”
Classes were canceled at Battle Mountain earlier Wednesday after the school evacuated and students were sent home. Qualman said the bomb threat was called into police dispatch on Wednesday morning.
Parents who chose to pick up their students were told to meet them at Berry Creek Middle School. Students were also allowed to leave by car, by foot and on Core Transit buses after checking out with teachers. Every Battle Mountain student was picked up or left independently as of noon.
“Those who were able to walk home were released,” Qualman said. “Those were recorded by staff. And students were also released to get their cars and drive themselves home once the parking lot was cleared 鈥� and their attendance marked by their staff members.”
The district will continue to follow its new communication policy as more is uncovered about the situation, including directly sending families messages containing actionable items, and updating the website, , with all other information.
Wednesday’s bomb threat comes on the heels of a week of threats to public schools in Eagle County that were widely circulated on social media and led to the arrest of a juvenile in Eagle on Friday, Sept. 13.
Threats that surfaced on Sunday, Sept. 8, and Tuesday, Sept. 10, were cleared by law enforcement as hoaxes. A threat on Monday, Sept. 9, which included lists of students’ and staff members’ names that may have been potential targets, is still under investigation by the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and federal partners.
On Friday, Sept. 13, Eagle police arrested a juvenile in connection with the threats, but further details have not yet been released.
