Miami Northwestern High In Dade, Pines Charter High In Broward Evacuated Over Possible Threats
NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBSMiami) – There was a massive police presence at Miami Northwestern Senior High following a possible threat Thursday morning.
School does not start until Monday but teachers, the football team and the band were all evacuated from the campus located at 1100 NW 71st Street.
All this took place as schools officials, including Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho were giving members of the media a tour of the new Miami-Dade County Public Schools Command Center, a network of 18,000 cameras with a view into every school in the District. They were running through various active incident situations, including a hostage situation on a school bus, when the real threat at Miami Northwestern Senior High came in.
CBS4's Rielle Creighton was in the command center as the school evacuation was taking place and watched as officials reacted to a real crisis as it unfolded. Initially, there was a report a suspect had been taken into custody in a stairwell, it turned out to be a new employee who didn't evacuate the building.
The Superintendent said the threat was most likely a hoax, no one was taken into custody.
"It's interesting and disturbing that it happened as we were demonstrating the capacity and powerful nature of the technologies that we have available to us, while were conducting this drill we were also simultaneously managing that situation," said Carvalho.
He says every employee in the district has been trained, they will be ready for day one.
"Your kids will be safe," he said.
Also Thursday, students and staff fled Pembroke Pines Charter High School after police said multiple people at the school received a note on their computer or smartphone containing a specific threat against the school.
The threat was unfounded and police are investigating in hopes of making an arrest.
