North Fork Schools Tell Parents Bus Threat 'Not Credible'

After New York State homeland security and counter-terrorism officials determined on Friday was not credible, the Mattituck-Cutchogue, Southold and Greenport school districts all used their automated telephone messaging services to inform parents of the latest information.

The New York State Education Department sent an e-mail to school superintendents late Wednesday morning with the current information. School officials were originally notified of the threat on Tuesday.

“[A]lthough law enforcement authorities are treating this threat seriously and continue to investigate, they are not considering this a credible threat at this time,” the education department e-mail reads.

The threat came from an anonymous email Friday to state officials with the subject line “Time to Kill.” In the e-mail, the author made remarks of how his/her group was dissatisfied with the politics in Albany, included in the e-mail were threats of violence to state office buildings, the state Legislature and school buses.

The April 1, e-mail stated, “If we attack a school bus full of kids, it may have no effect on the hardened criminals who rule Albany, but it will put the public in an uproar. Our goal is to create anarchy. You’ll have to kill us to stop us.”

As of today, the email’s author or the group referred to in the e-mail is unknown.

Phone calls to North Fork school officials were not returned by press time.