New Milford schools increase police presence as a precaution after Snapchat threat

NEW MILFORD — Police are patrolling the grounds of all four of the borough K-12 district's schools on Thursday after a message initially believed to be a threat to the high school campus was posted on Snapchat.

Schools Superintendent Michael Polizzi said the message referred to someone "planning to shoot up" Dover and New Milford high schools.

But Detective Lt. Kevin Van Saders said police determined the threat referred to schools in New York and Connecticut, not New Jersey.

Still, the detective said, officers were assigned as a precaution to patrol the campuses of the high school, David E. Owens Middle School, Berkley Street School and Gibbs School.

The high school and middle school already have school-resource officers stationed inside during school hours.

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Polizzi said he heard about the threat around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday from Bill Wilde, the high school's resource officer. He said the message specified the shootings would happen at noon on Thursday.

After police determined the threat did not pertain to local schools, Polizzi said parents were called and emailed around 11 p.m. to alert them more officers would be on patrol the next day.

"I apologize for the late call," Polizzi said in the mass email, "but we wanted to give authorities the greatest chance to do their work before needlessly alarming parents and closing the district."

Polizzi noted on Thursday that last week's massacre at a high school in southern Florida has not changed the district's mindset to protect its own schools from harm.

"Parkland doesn't really change anything in terms of our vigilance," Polizzi said. "It does provoke us to revisit our current protocol and take additional measures, as we see fit, to ensure the safety of our staff and our students."

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com