GALION — About 430 Galion Middle School students returned to school safely Tuesday afternoon following a morning bomb threat that led to an empty search of the school.
Chris Stone, the Galion School District spokesman said a note was found written on the wall in a middle school bathroom. Students were evacuated to the high school around 9:45 a.m.
“A student reported to administration writing on the bathroom wall,” Stone said in a teleconference following the bomb scare.
The district declined to detail the threat, but it mentioned the word ‘Bomb.’
“Obviously, we are still investigating, said Galion Chief of Police, Brain Satterfield. “We have video camera and evidence of who went in and out of the restroom, so we are investigating every lead we have at this point.”
Satterfield said the threat must have been written Tuesday morning because the custodial staff didn’t see it Monday night.
After about 20 law enforcement officers conducted a hands-on search through the middle school “with a fine-tooth comb.” They found nothing, Satterfield said.
The school was given an all-clear signal around noon, and students returned to school after they ate lunch, around 1 p.m.
Satterfield said when they find the author of the threat, the most likely charge would be inducing panic.
Stone said the school will deal with punishment internally as well.
“I’d like to say thank you to all of the first responders and our staff here at the school. All of our staff responded in a very quick way,” said Jim Grubbs, Galion’s superintendent “We notified our first responders and in minuets, we had several folks from the Galion Police Department, the Galion Fire Department along with the Crawford County Sheriff’s department and our staff and custodial staff responded in a very quick way to make sure everyone was safe.
“We went through the building with a fine tooth comb to keep everyone safe here.”
