Bomb hoax latest threat to area schools

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The latest in a series of threats against schools has police looking for whoever claimed to have planted a bomb at Albuquerque Academy on Thursday.

The call to the school came in around 7 a.m. halting traffic, clearing the buildings and putting classes on a two-hour delay.

The Albuquerque Police Department Bomb Squad searched the campus at Academy and Wyoming NE and gave the all-clear at about 9 a.m.

By late morning detectives had traced the call to a source and were actively working to identify the caller, an APD spokesperson told KRQE News 13.

The hoax was just the latest threat hitting schools in the area.

In late September a tip led the Albuquerque Public Schools to two sixth graders at Tony Hillerman Middle School who said they planned to shoot up the school and then kill themselves.

Last Wednesday a McKinley Middle School student who became upset while arguing with classmates claimed he had a bomb in his backpack.

And earlier this week we a student at Holy Ghost Catholic School threatened to shoot another student.
 

"Though they may turn out to be a hoax, we have to respond and treat them legitimately from the get-go because the threats are too dangerous and violent in nature for us not to treat them legitimately," APD Officer Tasia Martinez said.

These kinds of threats can be charged as fourth-degree felonies carrying up to a year and a half in prison.

In Belen on Wednesday police responded to a threat to shoot up Belen Middle School. Two eighth graders were arrested for that incident. The district attorney told News 13 the boys will have their first court appearance on Monday.