Updated at 5:30 p.m. Thursday: Multiple schools in the Berkshire County towns of Lenox, Dalton, Cheshire and Lanesborough were the target of a phone threat Thursday, according to an updated report by The Berkshire Eagle. Only Lenox's school was evacuated while the rest took other precautions. Evening activities are being held at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School after a phone threat led to an evacuation Thursday afternoon.
About 420 students were evacuated around 2 o’clock Thursday and by 3:15 Lenox Police and Fire determined the building was safe. Principal Michael Knybel says he was told by authorities that the school was the target of what is believed to a bomb threat with a time limit.
“We received a notice from our Lenox Police Department that the 911 dispatch for Berkshire County received an automated voice threat that listed multiple areas in Pittsfield and Lenox,” Knybel said. “We were one of the areas listed.”
Knybel says it’s not believed Thursday’s incident is related to phone threats that led to two school evacuations in April 2015.
The newspaper reports Wahconah Regional High and Craneville Elementary schools in Dalton and Lanesborough Elementary School were also targeted, but not evacuated. Cheshire Elementary School went into a "soft lockdown" while the town's post office closed and later reopened, according to the report.
