Fulton police respond to bomb threat at high school

School and law-enforcement officials evacuated the vocational agriculture department at Fulton High School on Thursday afternoon after a reported bomb threat.

Maj. Roger Rice with the Fulton Police Department said officers received the call at 2:15 p.m. after a student reported seeing a threat written on the wall of the boys' bathroom in the vocational agriculture wing. Rice said the main body of the high school, which is connected to the vocational agriculture building by a glass hallway, was not evacuated.

"There was never any threat to the high school," Rice said.

Fulton Public Schools Superintendent Jacque Cowherd further explained the reasoning behind not evacuating the entire high school campus.

"A lot of protocols say you want to be careful about evacuating ... in case there is a shooter outside," Cowherd said. "And the threat focused on one small area, and we could focus on that area and get kids out of there."

Cowherd said the vocational agriculture building will be closed Friday as a precautionary measure. He said parents were notified of the incident by text message and email.

Both Rice and Cowherd explained that officers searched the vocational agriculture department, but found nothing suspicious. Rice said the police department has some leads and will follow up with the investigation "first thing in the morning."

Cowherd said officials have reviewed security footage of the area, "but there's not much there."

"There is no way to tell when (the threat) was written," Cowherd said.