FALMOUTH — Four Cape high schools were among about a half dozen schools across the state Friday to be disrupted by bomb threats, bringing the school week to a chaotic end just as students and staff were headed into a three-day holiday weekend.

Falmouth and Mashpee officials evacuated the high schools after the threats. Bourne and Barnstable officials did not find the threats credible, police said.

By late afternoon Friday, two bomb-sniffing dogs had found nothing at Falmouth High School, Falmouth Police Chief Edward Dunne said.

Video: Falmouth High School evacuated for bomb threat

Video by George Brennan/Cape Cod Times

It’s too early to say whether the multiple threats were connected, but schools reported a similar computerized voice warning of a bomb, Dunne said.

“There are several of these going on around the state and we are working with other law enforcement agencies to determine if they are related,” Mashpee Police Chief Scott Carline wrote in an email to the Times.

The state fire marshal's office issued a statement Friday saying that an investigation into the threats is ongoing by several law enforcement agencies, including federal authorities because similar threats were reported in Maryland.

“Law enforcement must take every threat seriously until they can ascertain there is no actual risk,” wrote Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the fire marshal. “The disruption to local schools and to public safety personnel is serious and not taken lightly. Perpetrators of hoax bomb threats will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

The penalty for a hoax bomb threat is not more than 2½ years in a correctional facility or 5 years in a state prison. Fines up to $10,000 are possible.

The threat to Falmouth High School was called in at 1:31 p.m. and the building was quickly evacuated, Superintendent Nancy Taylor said. At the scene, students huddled in large groups on the far reaches of athletic fields, inside tennis courts and along the outside perimeter of the parking lot. Many students could be seen texting the incident to parents who showed up in droves to check on and pick up their children.

The first of several automated calls to parents was issued about a half-hour after the school was evacuated.

School officials know they were behind students in reporting the incident to parents.

“Our first priority was the safety of the students,” Taylor said.

A short time after what would have been the normal dismissal time, buses rolled into the Falmouth High School parking lot, five at a time. Student backpacks and jackets were checked out of an abundance of caution, Dunne said.

Both Dunne and Taylor defended the school’s reaction to the threat.

“I think we did well,” Taylor said.

In Mashpee, the threat call was made at about 1:40 p.m., according to a message sent to parents by Acting Superintendent Patricia DeBoer.

“Within minutes, emergency personnel were in place helping school staff to further evaluate the situation and to secure the building,” DeBoer wrote.

Mashpee middle and high school students were sent home at 1:50 p.m., she wrote.

Both DeBoer and Taylor praised the response by students and staff.

“I commend all (Mashpee) students and staff for their calm and orderly response to this situation,” DeBoer wrote.

In both Mashpee and Falmouth, school sports, practices and afterschool activities were canceled. Some Falmouth students, who left the building without backpacks, will be allowed back in this weekend to retrieve them, Taylor said. Sandwich High School also postponed girls and boys basketball games, though no threat was reported at the school. No make-up dates for the games have been announced yet.

The threat to Bourne High School was considered “noncredible and nonspecific,” Bourne police Lt. Brandon Esip said.

“Out of an abundance of a precaution the building was swept by Bourne police personnel and by a K-9 from the state police with negative findings,” Esip said. “There was no interruption to the day-to-day operations at the school and no evacuation.”

In Barnstable, the high school was not evacuated because students were already in the process of being released, according to Barnstable police Sgt. Sean Sweeney. Police were notified of the threat by an officer at the school.

Other schools in Massachusetts received bomb threats Friday afternoon.

Arlington Catholic High School was evacuated just before 2 p.m. after a bomb threat was called in by phone, according to Arlington police.

As a precaution, St. Agnes Catholic Elementary School, which is a few hundred yards from the high school, was also evacuated, police said.

The threat is under investigation.

Boston College High School received a bomb threat by a telephone recording at 12:20 p.m. and the Boston police bomb squad was called to the scene.

A separate bomb threat at Chelsea High School on Friday morning does not appear to be connected, Mieth wrote.

— Follow George Brennan on Twitter: @gpb227. Times staff writers Ethan Genter, Haven Orecchio-Egresitz and Sam Mintz contributed to this report.