Another round of bomb threats impacted communities across Northeast Ohio, as well as right here at News 5 Cleveland. Our newsroom was forced to evacuate the station so police and bomb-sniffing dogs could sweep the building.
Additionally, at least five schools also received threats in Cuyahoga, Lorain and Stark counties.
School Security Expert Ken Trump told us that the disruption is exactly the goal of whoever's behind what we saw play out today.
The call to our news desk came in just after 12 p.m. A distorted voice alerted us to multiple bombs, something that at least one of the school districts was told as well.
Trump told us that when you get a bomb threat, it's typically one of two things: a local threat from someone with a grievance or what's called swatting, where multiple schools, organizations and locations are hit around the same time to bring police to those locations.
Cleveland Police said that's what its preliminary investigation showed this was likely to be.
Trump said these calls tend to originate outside the state or even outside the country—the goal: disruption.
Schools handled the situation differently: some waited until the all-clear was given to resume classes, while others dismissed students for the day.
Trump told us that schools need to assess and react, not react and then assess, because sometimes evacuations can put students at greater risk; they need to determine with first responders whether the threat is credible.
Fortunately, none of today's were.
This comes just days after the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Akron Zoo were evacuated due to similar threats.
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RELATED: Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Akron Zoo evacuated due to threats
