Press release:
At approximately 1:07 p.m. the Genesee County 911 Dispatch Center received a report from the Veteran's Administration Hotline that a male subject had called them and stated they were going to get a weapon and "shoot up a school". This information was immediately relayed to patrols in the City and throughout the County working. An initial trace of the phone number provided showed the phone to be in the City of Batavia area. Patrols were dispatched to each school in Genesee County as a precautionary measure, and all county-wide schools were placed into lockout.
Officers and investigators from multiple law enforcement agencies followed up on leads and determined the threat to not be credible and, in fact, was false. Currently, a juvenile is being interviewed by the City of Batavia Detective Bureau regarding the matter, no further information regarding the juvenile will be released at this time.
All schools were released from lockout at approximately 2:25 p.m.
We wish to thank the public, the school districts and the other members of law enforcement for their assistance during this investigation.
UPDATE, statement from Batavia Superintendent Jason Smith:
After the events of this afternoon, I wanted to provide additional information regarding today’s lockout.
At around 1:30 p.m., the Batavia Police Department received a tip that a threat had been made against a local school. While no specific school was directly named in the threat, all schools in Genesee County went on lockout.
The Batavia Police Department worked quickly to identify the suspect, and after an investigation, the threat was deemed not credible. The lockout was lifted at 2:30 p.m..
At this time, there is no additional threat to the Batavia City School District, so all school activities will resume as normal.
While this was a stressful situation for all involved, I want to thank the Batavia Police Department, our administrators, teachers, and staff for handling our lockout procedures quickly and efficiently. While we train for situations like these and have strict protocols, we never want to have to use them. I thank everyone for their quick actions and commitment to keeping our students safe.
Please feel free to reach out to me or your student’s building principal should you have any additional questions or concerns. Thank you again for your cooperation and support.
Previously: UPDATED: Schools throughout Genesee County on lockout
