Grapevine students return to class following bomb threat, evacuations

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Grapevine police are trying to trace the caller who made three bomb threats against school campuses Monday morning. Those threats were unsubstantiated.

It all began around 9 a.m. Police said within 15 minutes, three threatening phone calls were made directly to the Grapevine Middle School, Cross Timbers Middle School, and iUniversity Prep front offices.

The Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District said the schools quickly began following their safety protocols. The students were evacuated and police were called in to investigate.

Even though the school district asked parents to refrain from trying to pick up their children because of the heavy police presence, many showed up at the campuses anyway.

“That’s why I signed him out because I’m scared,” said parent Lisa Tracer.

“I was nervous,” admitted student Blake Tracer. “And I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ and stuff. ‘What am I going to do? What’s going to happen?’ Stuff like that.”

Parents waited patiently outside the perimeter in the cold wet weather until police and bomb dogs searched and cleared all three locations.

“My daughter text me she’s scared. It’s the first time in six years she told me she scared,” said another parent. “I’m kind of worried about that. This shouldn’t be happening like that.”

Fortunately, Grapevine police and K-9 units were able to sweep and clear the buildings before 11 a.m. The students and staff were able to return to classes for the second half of the day.

"Safety is our number one priority and we take any threat seriously in GCISD. We want to thank all of our students and staff for remaining calm during this time and for a safe and swift evacuation from our buildings," GCISD said in a statement.

Investigators are now focusing on the person responsible for the threats.

“The information we have is that it was a male voice, and it came from out of state. That’s all we had to go by at this point,” said Grapevine Police Sgt. Jason Keller. “There’s no reason to believe that any students were involved in this, but we’ll continue our investigation.”

The school district said there will be an increased police presence at the schools as a precaution.