VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Valley City School Resource Officer Sean Hagen received an anonymous tip on the new 411 line stated that there was a “bomb in the school on Thursday, January 3 around 2:35pm.

Schools Superintendent Josh Johnson said the district followed their threat assessment and crisis management procedures to determine the credibility of this threat. He said it was not.

An administrative lock down was issued and additional police presence was dispatched to every school in the district. He said authorities are still trying to determine who issued this threat.

Johnson said if additional incidents like this happen in the future, he and other school officials will discuss lengthening the school year for any further false reporting.

If anyone has information about this incident contact the school district office at 701-845-0483 or Valley City Police at 701-845-3110.

Below is a news release issued by Superintendent Josh Johnson:

This afternoon, Valley City Public Schools, with the assistance from School Resource Officer Sean Hagen and the Valley City Police Department, initiated our emergency response systems and immediately assessed a “bomb threat” using our threat assessment protocol, emergency operations plan, and the Building Emergency Response Teams (BERT). Our BERT teams were able to sweep the school buildings and made an assessment that there were no suspicious items or packages found anywhere in our school buildings. While the BERT team was assessing the school buildings, SRO Hagen was unable to receive any additional correspondence on the Tip411 line regarding the threat of a bomb in our schools. After concluding our investigation into this threat and deeming this threat not credible, all students were dismissed at the regular schedule at the end of the school day.

As previously stated, School Resource Officer Sean Hagen received the information about a “bomb in a school” on the anonymous Tip411 line. The Tip411 line is intended to be used across North Dakota as a means for students, parents, and community members to communicate important safety information anonymously with the School Resource Officer or Law Enforcement. VCPS has been using this Tip Line along with many other school districts and communities in North Dakota for a very short period of time. Unfortunately, the VCPS Tip411 line has been misused and SRO Hagen has received multiple unfounded and false reports, including “there is a bomb in a school”. Currently, we are using the Tip411 line in addition to the SRO Text-A-Tip line (SRO Hagen’s cell phone), however, if this new anonymous line is continued to be misused, we will no longer use the Tip411 line and solely use the Text-A-Tip line.

Please note that any future disruptions to our school day, including lock downs, bomb threats, or any emergency responses, may lead us to be required to make up for missed or disrupted educational class time. This includes extending our school year beyond the last scheduled day of school and possibly making up educational time on a Saturday. Not only are these unfounded reports a disruption to the educational process, they also constitute a crime and will be prosecuted appropriately.