Occupants of the Match Public Charter High School and other nearby buildings were evacuated on Wednesday after the Match Public Charter High School received a bomb threat at about 12:36 p.m., police officials said.
The Boston Police Department sent a bomb unit to investigate the incident, which was later cleared, said officer James Kenneally.
The Boston University Police Department received the call about the incident from BPD at about 12:50 p.m., BUPD officials said.
About 30 minutes later, BUPD sent out an alert that urged students to stay away from the area of Commonwealth Avenue and Babcock Street.
BUPD also sent one squad car to assist the BPD, BUPD officials said.
The Match School, located on the corner of 1019 Commonwealth Ave., was cornered off for investigation, said BU spokesman Colin Riley.
The Match School, one of five Match institutions in Boston, is a national nonprofit charter high school, according to its website. The five schools combined are authorized to have 1,250 students in its Boston system.
Kenneally said he could not confirm the exact time the bomb squad was dispatched.
Riley said, however, that the bomb squad arrived at roughly 1 p.m.
“In letting us know, we decided to let the BU community know that was taking place … for safety’s sake,” Riley said. “And to … have them [not] go in to the area to travel and to understand why the area was cornered off.”
But “nothing was found,” Kenneally said.
“The call was made, we responded and it was clear,” he said.
While the BPD could not confirm earlier in the day whether or not there were “additional threats,” as indicated in the BU Alert Service text message, Riley said someone did call in multiple threats.
“It wasn’t just one threat, it was a couple threats [that] turned out to be a hoax, and they responded by doing a search of the building and cornering off that corner,” Riley said.
Kenneally, however, said the incident is not unusual for the BPD.
“We usually get calls like this at the start of the school year,” he said. “It’s not uncommon.”
Kenneally said sometimes incidents such as this could be due to a student who does not want to return to school, thinking it is funny to call in a bomb threat.
BU students were in the midst of the second day of the academic year when they received the alert.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Caroline Lee said she did not feel unsafe, despite the alert.
“I was already at CAS when I received the bomb threat call, so I thought, ‘it’s already too late to do anything about it,’” she said. “I didn’t think anything would happen.”
At the time of publication, the BPD stated that it could not confirm whether or not police were pursuing a suspect. In an email sent to The Daily Free Press, BPD officials said the report was not available at the time of press.
