UPDATE: Old Kings Elementary School was also briefly locked down on Wednesday after an anonymous threatening phone call was voiced. It too was cleared by law enforcement and the lockdown was lifted.
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Palm Coast’s Buddy Taylor Middle School was placed on lockdown Wednesday morning following what the school district described as ‘a suspicious call’. It’s the second day in a row that BTMS was locked down for a suspicious call; Tuesday’s incident occurred in the afternoon and the campus was cleared by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. The lockdown also extended to Wadsworth Elementary School. Both lockdowns were lifted shortly after 9:30 am.
As school buses were arriving at BTMS Wednesday morning, they were redirected instead to Indian Trails Middle School, where students could be held while the situation was assessed. They’ve since been redirected back to BTMS with the lockdown having been lifted. Car riders were also turned away for the time being, and asked to wait before dropping their kids off or to return home. A heavy law enforcement presence responded to the school as is customary for these incidents, and began investigating whether the call represented a credible threat. It almost always does not.
According to a Flagler Schools spokesperson, there’s no indication yet that the call on Wednesday is connected to the call on Tuesday. The district wasn’t yet able to comment on the contents of the phone call as of Wednesday morning. Tuesday’s call was determined to be ‘swatting’, the act of fraudulently drawing a large law enforcement presence somewhere as a means of hindering their activities.
Also clarified by Flagler Schools’ spokesman is that students who returned home due to the lockdown and won’t be able to come back to school for classes will have their absence excused by administration.
