CEDAR LAKE, IN – The Cedar Lake Police Department coordinated with the Hanover School Administration and School Resource Officers (SROs) to evacuate all schools in the district Friday morning after receiving an alert from the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center.
The alert stated that approximately forty schools across Indiana had received emails indicating a bomb had been placed in one school. The email was written in Arabic and needed translation. There were no specific schools named in the threat, and several schools did not receive the emails due to the source, which was an email address commonly blocked by email servers as spam. The email and source are still under investigation by federal and local authorities, and no further information will be released at this time.
Each school was searched inside and out with the assistance of K-9 Officers and their dogs from the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and Dyer Police Department. No suspicious items were found, and students and staff were allowed back into the schools once cleared.
The Cedar Lake Police Department sent out an alert to the public through Smart911, a notification service used throughout Lake County, to encourage residents to sign up for the free service to receive these alerts. The Hanover School Administration also sent out Robocalls to alert parents of the incident with additional follow-up.
The Cedar Lake Police Department has no evidence that this threat involved any specific Hanover School or any substantiated validation of this threat. The safety of the community and schools is their top priority, and their response to this threat was immediate. They want to thank the Hanover School District, Cedar Lake Fire Department, Lake County Sheriff K-9 Pyro, his handler Officer R. Borchert Jr, and Dyer Police K-9 Kolt, his handler Cpl. B. Kissinger for their immediate response and assistance.
The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Cedar Lake Police Department at 219-374-5416 ext. 118.
