‘Credible threat’ closes Quakertown high

School targeted by second such threat since Wednesday

Quakertown Community High School was closed Friday after the school district received a credible threat, according to a message on the school district’s website.

Students were in live, virtual instruction instead of coming into the building.

The district received a report through Safe2Say Something, a statewide system designed to stop school threats, at 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

“As law enforcement officials considered it a credible threat, they could not clear us for opening school this morning,” high school principal Mattias van ‘t Hoenderdaal wrote in the message on Friday.

This was the second threat targeted against the school this week. On Wednesday, the high school received a threat around noon and went into lockdown, said district spokesman Gary Weckselblatt.

Created through legislation signed by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2018, Safe2Say Something is operated by the state attorney general’s office. More than 850,000 Pennsylvania school students in about 1,000 districts and private schools have been trained to recognize signs of trouble among others, particularly in social media posts, and to report them through the Safe2Say app or 24-hour tipline staffed by the attorney general’s office.

The district brought students back to school five days a week in the fall and has been offering an entirely remote option as well.

Created through legislation signed by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2018, Safe2Say Something is operated by the state attorney general’s office. More than 850,000 Pennsylvania school students in about 1,000 districts and private schools have been trained to recognize signs of trouble among others, particularly in social media posts, and to report them through the Safe2Say app or a 24-hour tipline staffed by the attorney general’s office.