Aberdeen Middle School was placed on a modified lockdown much of Tuesday as city police and school officials investigated a social media threat that there would be a shooting, police said.
Aberdeen Police were notified around 7:30 a.m. that a threat of a shooting at Aberdeen Middle was made on Instagram, according to a news release from the city’s police department.
An unknown person sent a message to several students to a new social media app called Sarahah, according to the news release. Though the app is based in another country, it can be linked to Instagram accounts.
Aberdeen Police, including the Aberdeen Middle school resource officer, and the Harford County Public Schools chief of safety and security responded to the school.
“After exhausting all means, this threat was determined to be non-credible,” the news release states.
The school was on modified lockdown and access to and from was limited and monitored for the rest of the day. Classes continued and ended as scheduled.
“In the interest of public safety, we wanted to ensure there was indeed no threat,” Lt. Will Reiber of Aberdeen Police Department said. “We are always going to err on side of caution and ensure that student lives weren’t in danger. The time you let your guard down is when things happen. We don’t want to disrupt school, but inaction can result in bad deeds.”
