A staff member at Treasure Mountain Junior High School discovered a note early this morning (Thursday morning) which stated there was a bomb in the library. A video from an earlier time period showed a girl with the note in her hand but according to police, it’s unclear if the student knew what the note said or if she is responsible for writing it and placing it in the library.
Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter says the female student who was captured in the video is being interviewed, along with her parents. Because the investigation is ongoing, he would not say when the video surveillance was taken.
“So, as we go ahead with the investigation, we find that this leads to other avenues then we’ll follow those as well. But right now, we’re not sure what level she has an understanding of where the note came from. It doesn’t appear that she’s the one that created the note right now.”
The note was found on a shelf in the library a little after 8 am. The Park City Police Department’s resource officer cleared the room and Carpenter says they followed protocol which brought in a bomb squad and search dogs.
“We went through to make sure there wasn’t anything out of place and searched all the shelving and other areas of concern. And, then immediately called Unified Bomb Squad.”
Carpenter says the amount of time between when the girl was captured on the video and when the note was found by staff played a role in how they evaluate the immediacy of the threat.
“The things we always look for is time and distance to make sure we don’t have any kind of an issue. And of course, any barriers there. So, when we looked at that, we went ahead and cleared the library and then evaluated the surveillance video from the library and were able to determine there was a substantial delay when the note was actually placed in the library.”
Carpenter says the situation did not dictate a school wide evacuation because the note referred only to the library room. And with the time frame of the video and when the note was found, a full building evacuation wasn’t warranted.
