URBANA – Urbana High School will hold an e-learning day on Thursday. The decision comes after the school went into lockdown for much of Wednesday after someone sent threats of violence.
No one was hurt in yesterday’s incident. The FBI and Urbana police are investigating the threats but so far there are no arrests.
Urbana High School was placed under lockdown on Wednesday afternoon after receiving a threat.
In a Facebook post, Urbana School District #116 superintendent Dr. Jennifer Ivory-Tatum says students are secure in their classrooms and not being released.
Later, the district said that the school switched to a ‘softer’ lockdown after police and FBI determined the threat was not serious.
Update 1:10pm: There is no active threat or danger at this time. Therefore, after consultation with Urbana Police, the FBI agents on site, Investigations, and our SRO, we are moving from hard lockdown and returning to our soft lockdown procedures for the remainder of the day.
— Urbana Schools #116 (@Urbana116) November 16, 2022
The district also says an ambulance was dispatched to Urbana High School at 12:18 p.m. for a student medical emergency unrelated to the lockdown.
The district says it is working with several law enforcement agencies to investigate threats emailed to the school today.
On November 7, Urbana canceled classes at its middle and high school are receiving multiple threats. No one was hurt in that incident. School buses were directed to turn around and drop students off who had just been picked up to go to school.
In a statement, Urbana Police Lt. Mike Cervantes said its department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Champaign County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois Secretary of State Police are investigating the November 7 incident. He said a ‘terroristic threat’ came from a number of callers to Urbana High School’s offices.
This is a developing story and we will be updating it as we receive more information.