This browser does not support the Video element.
Bomb threat forces evacuation of Atlanta academies
A bomb threat forces the evacuation of hundreds of Atlanta Public School students. B.E.S.T. Academy and Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy students in northwest Atlanta got placed on lockdown after a bomb threat. Then the school district bused them to nearby Douglass High School.
ATLANTA - Students at B.E.S.T. Academy or Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy were evacuated Thursday due to a reported bomb threat.
Students told FOX 5 first-period classes were underway when the campus was placed on lockdown.
"They said lockdown level 3 or 4," student Emory Jones recounted, "and then we had to evacuate the school, then after that they evacuated us to a little park area for about two hours."
School administrators decided to bus students and staff a few miles away to Douglass High as Atlanta Public Schools Police and officers with the Atlanta Police Department investigated the threat.
Parents were told to report to Douglass High to pick up their children.
While police investigate the bomb hoax, concerned family members worry about the effect such threats have on their children's physical and mental wellbeing.
"And I know sometimes kids play pranks, and call the school, and say there is a bomb threat, or what have you," said parent Ron Sykes. "But things are getting so bad, and out of hand, that the kids don't even feel safe going to school, and how are they going to get their education if they feel threatened every day."
Police cleared the scene after determining there wasn't a bomb. Classes will resume on campus Friday.
MAP OF THE AREA