Livingston Middle School gets bomb threat

Students at Livingston Middle School were sent home early Tuesday after someone phoned in a bomb threat that proved to be unfounded, police said.

Staff at the school arrived Tuesday to find a recorded phone message threatening to bomb the campus, Livingston police Sgt. Ray Fong said.

“The school, of course, takes that as a serious threat,” Fong said.

The school summoned police and sent its students to Livingston High School. Livingston police officers, working with a K-9 explosives team from the Merced Police Department, searched the campus and found no traces of a bomb.

It was the second threat made against a Livingston campus this school year. In October, the high school was cleared after staff there discovered a recorded phone message making threats against the campus. The message was traced to a 16-year-old student, who later was booked into juvenile hall for investigation of two felony charges of making a false threat against a school, police said.

The source of the threat discovered Tuesday was under investigation, Fong said.

While police searched the campus Tuesday, the middle school students were taken to the cafeteria at the high school to wait for parents to pick them up. Students whose parents were unable to come for them were taken back to the middle school after it was cleared by the inspection, Fong said.

The middle school has an enrollment of about 800 students, according to Lupe Maldonado, a superintendent secretary for the Livingston Union Elementary School District.

Fong said the lockdown was “incredibly disruptive.” Motorists were inconvenienced by the blocking-off of a major roadway near the school; parents were impacted, with many having to take time off work to retrieve their children; and the school itself saw its calendar disrupted, Fong said.

“We’re always glad when the situation works out and no one is hurt,” he said. “That’s the most important.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 9:32 AM with the headline "Livingston Middle School gets bomb threat."