Midtown High bomb scare the latest in trend of threats to Atlanta schools, police chief says

ATLANTA - Atlanta Public Schools police officers have responded to multiple threats of violence so this school year. 

On Thursday, Midtown High School students evacuated to Piedmont Park while police investigated. That followed a threat to Parkside Elementary School, which also prompted an evacuation. 

Atlanta Public Schools Police Chief Ronald Applin said the school system drills evacuations regularly. He credited communication sent to parents that allowed police to investigate the school thoroughly and swiftly determine the threat to Midtown High was illegitimate.

About 10 law enforcement agencies were involved in the response at the high school. The threat turned out to be a hoax.

"We knew that a school of that size, we needed as many K-9s as we can get," Applin said.

Police are continuing to investigate who filed the phony threat. Applin said police are seeing fewer threats of school shootings and more bomb threats, prompting police responses.

"We'll see threats to shoot up a school, those have slowed down quite a bit, but bomb threats, we're starting to see it pick up a little bit," he said.

Applin suspects testing was related to the threat to Midtown High School, but there's still plenty to be determined as the investigation continues. 

"If we can find those people who did it, that creates a deterrent," Applin said. "It lets people understand that we're going to do anything we can to find out who the person is that made these calls."