Superintendent: State Says School Bus Threat Not Credible

New York State homeland security and counter-terrorism officials have deemed that Friday is not credible.

The update on the threat came in a state Education Department e-mail sent to school superintendents late Wednesday morning.

“[A]lthough law enforcement authorities are treating this threat seriously and continue to investigate, they are not considering this a credible threat at this time,” the e-mail reads.

Smithtown Central School District Superintendent Edward Ehmann said the district is aware of the threat and bus drivers are to look out for any atypical people and actions.

“We received word right away that there was no credibility to the threat,” Ehmann said. “The transportation directors were sent a message just to be on the watch for any unknown individuals or any unusual behavior on the routes. This was a statewide bulletin.”

Ehmann also said safety concerns surrounding this threat should not be an overbearing issue with parents and the district has open communication with transportation providers.

“We are in constant communication with our vendors – town transportation, Suffolk transportation – to make sure that their employees are following the strictest protocols regarding this detection of any kind of suspicious behavior,” he said. “They’re well trained, they won’t let anybody on the bus that isn’t assigned, they check the busses to make sure there’s no suspicious items around … I would sense that there is really no need for parents to be overly concerned especially since there was no viability attached to the threat.”

The threat came in the form of an anonymous email Friday to state officials with the subject line “Time to Kill,” making specific threats of violence to state office buildings, the state Legislature and school buses.

The superintendent added if parents have questions or concerns to contact Transportation Supervisor Mary Augugliaro at 631-382-4105.

Southampton Patch Editor Brendan O'Reilly contributed to this story.