Watertown

No Threat Found After Investigation Into Possible Threat at Swift Middle School in Watertown

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There is extra police presence at Swift Middle School in Watertown today after an investigation into information that violence might occur at the school today, but police said they found nothing suspicious.

Police said an uncorroborated comment was overheard yesterday.

Watertown Police Chief Joshua Bernegger said in a statement that a Swift Middle School student reported hearing another student in the hallway Thursday say something to the effect that the school was going to "get shot up tomorrow" and police and the school district thoroughly investigated the alleged comment. 

He said there are no other known witnesses and police and school officials are confident that the alleged comment doesn't constitute a credible threat to the school. 

Absent further information, arrests are not expected, he said.

The investigation included a thorough external and interior search of the complete buildings.

“As we knew at the start of this investigation, there was no corroboration of information and at this time there are no other indicators that lead us to believe that the threat is valid, a statement from police and the schools said.

Out of an abundance of caution, Swift Middle School has additional police presence for the full day today and counselors will be available for any faculty and staff who would like to make use of their assistance.

Police and school officials said the Swift administration and counseling teams will meet with all faculty this morning and all students as well.

Watertown police along with Watertown Public School security staff will be monitoring all schools today for extra precaution, according to local officials.

“The Watertown Police Department, along with the Watertown Public School District, would like to reassure the entire Watertown Community that the threat is over and that our students and schools are safe to run as usual at this time. We know that hearing about incidents that include threats like these can cause feelings of fear and worry - that is completely normal. And in these cases, it's important to know that you can trust your school and town's emergency teams to do exactly what they are trained to do to ensure an extremely detailed examination of all situations in order to ensure that we can all return to normal, the statement from police and the schools says.

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