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“You better run home…cause I’m going to shoot up the school,” read the text, prompting an immediate response from Elmwood Park and Saddle Brook police and Bergen County Sheriff’s officers just after 1:30 p.m.
“It didn’t have a phone number, so it appeared anonymous,” Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The recipient immediately told a teacher who went straight administrators, Foligno said.
Under the modified shelter-in-place, students could move around but not leave their classrooms.
After determining who sent the text, police searched his home and locker and found nothing harmful, the chief said.
“We are going to charge him,” he said. “He’ll have to go to juvenile court [the Family Division of Superior Court in Hackensack].”
“It was intended as a prank, but that doesn’t mean we’re not taking it very seriously,” said Foligno, who was at Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino’s annual “Chief for a Day” event when he got the call this afternoon. “He’s going to be dealt with sternly. This cannot be allowed to happen without consequences.”
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