Schools in Springfield, Ohio, were closed for the second consecutive day due to bomb threats on Friday (September 13). The threats, which targeted public schools and municipal buildings, have coincided with a surge in false claims about the city's Haitian population.
The students at Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary Schools were evacuated to alternate district locations, while Roosevelt Middle School was closed before the school day began, according to school district spokesperson Jenna Leinasars. The Springfield Police Department had sent the school district information on an unspecified threat, prompting the evacuations.
In addition to the school evacuations, several city commissioners and a municipal employee were targeted by an emailed bomb threat, city spokesperson Karen Graves said. A second email threatened multiple locations, including Springfield City Hall, Cliff Park High School, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and the Ohio License Bureau Southside.
"All affected buildings have been evacuated. Authorities, with the support of explosive detection canines, have conducted thorough inspections and cleared the facilities listed in the threats," Graves said in a statement.
Local police and FBI agents based in Dayton are working to determine the origin of these email threats.
The city of Springfield has recently been the focus of a national political controversy involving false rumors that Haitian immigrants have been stealing and eating household pets. These unfounded claims have been propagated by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as part of a broader effort to use Springfield as an example of the alleged harmful consequences of immigration.
City officials and police have stated there is no credible information to support these outlandish claims. Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Chris Cook also refuted Vance's claim of a “massive rise in communicable diseases” in Springfield, stating that the city is at its lowest rate of communicable diseases since 2016.