Police: Hoax threat involved school in Florida, not East St. Louis

A threat posted online about a Lincoln Middle School turned out to involve a school in another state, not the one in East St. Louis.

Still, school officials and police in East St. Louis conducted an investigation and searched the Lincoln Middle School in East St. Louis on Tuesday.

The post on social media warned that all Lincoln Middle School students were in danger if they came to school Tuesday. The writer of the post said he was coming to school with a handgun in his backpack and would be ready to shoot anyone who tried to stop him. The writer said he had three accomplices.

Illinois State Police and a police dog helped search the school in East St. Louis.

East St. Louis Police Chief Michael Hubbard said, “We checked the school building as a precautionary measure to make sure it was safe and anyone coming to school was safe. We learned later that it was a hoax and the school in reference was not even in the state.”

He added, “They named Lincoln Middle as their target. We have a school named Lincoln Middle. To be sure that there was no threat to anyone's safety, we took the threat seriously.”

Superintendent of District 189, Arthur Culver, sent a letter home to parents telling them that the threat involved a Florida school.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Police: Hoax threat involved school in Florida, not East St. Louis."