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Kehillah Jewish High School evacuated Thursday after bomb threat

No bombs found; police look for man who made threat

A bomb threat prompted the evacuation of the Kehillah Jewish High School in south Palo Alto on Thursday afternoon, police said. No bombs were found.

Kehillah Jewish High School is located at 3900 Fabian Way in Palo Alto.

A man called the administrative office at the school to make a threat, according to a news release. School officials called the the city's emergency dispatch center shortly before 3 p.m. and evacuated the roughly 250 students and staff who were on campus at the time.

Officers cordoned off the school at 3900 Fabian Way and searched the property with a police K-9 that is certified in explosives detection, according to the news release. They determined that no bomb was present and are now looking for the caller.

There have been no similar phoned-in bomb threats recently in Palo Alto, according to the police. There was, however, a recent incident at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School in which a student scrawled a bomb threat on a stall of the girls' bathroom. Investigators identified that student and deemed the threat not credible.

"We would like to thank the Palo Alto police for their immediate and thorough response and to our parent body for their calm during what was understandably an upsetting experience," Kehillah Jewish High School said in a community statement on Thursday. "It allowed us to do our job and keep our community safe. Our students responded in an exemplary fashion. They have every reason to be proud of themselves."

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Anyone with information about Thursday's incident is asked to call the department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.

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Palo Alto Weekly reporter Zoe Morgan contributed to this report.

Gennady Sheyner
 
Gennady Sheyner covers the City Hall beat in Palo Alto as well as regional politics, with a special focus on housing and transportation. Before joining the Palo Alto Weekly/PaloAltoOnline.com in 2008, he covered breaking news and local politics for the Waterbury Republican-American, a daily newspaper in Connecticut. Read more >>

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Kehillah Jewish High School evacuated Thursday after bomb threat

No bombs found; police look for man who made threat

A bomb threat prompted the evacuation of the Kehillah Jewish High School in south Palo Alto on Thursday afternoon, police said. No bombs were found.

A man called the administrative office at the school to make a threat, according to a news release. School officials called the the city's emergency dispatch center shortly before 3 p.m. and evacuated the roughly 250 students and staff who were on campus at the time.

Officers cordoned off the school at 3900 Fabian Way and searched the property with a police K-9 that is certified in explosives detection, according to the news release. They determined that no bomb was present and are now looking for the caller.

There have been no similar phoned-in bomb threats recently in Palo Alto, according to the police. There was, however, a recent incident at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School in which a student scrawled a bomb threat on a stall of the girls' bathroom. Investigators identified that student and deemed the threat not credible.

"We would like to thank the Palo Alto police for their immediate and thorough response and to our parent body for their calm during what was understandably an upsetting experience," Kehillah Jewish High School said in a community statement on Thursday. "It allowed us to do our job and keep our community safe. Our students responded in an exemplary fashion. They have every reason to be proud of themselves."

Anyone with information about Thursday's incident is asked to call the department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.

Palo Alto Weekly reporter Zoe Morgan contributed to this report.

Comments

Bystander
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 27, 2023 at 9:41 am
Bystander, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
Registered user
on Jan 27, 2023 at 9:41 am

There was a similar incident at JLS a week or so ago. Perhaps there's a contagion.


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