LITCHFIELD, NH – Litchfield Police, and Hillsborough County Sheriffs arrived at the Griffen Memorial School on Bancroft Highway in Litchfield at about 9 a.m. Friday to evacuate students from the building in order to conduct a search after a meme received by a student was reported to school officials.
Although the threat was determined to be not credible, the evacuation of all three schools in Litchfield was done as a precaution.
School Superintendent Michael Jette explained that the decision to evacuate was made after a student received a meme via text message which was shared with other students, some of whom reported the message to school officials.
Multiple busses arrived at the school and law enforcement escorted students to the busses. As parents arrived at the school they were turned away to go to an alternative location to reunite with their children, Tabernacle Baptist Church, also in Litchfield.
A line of busses left the Griffen Memorial School and traveled about 10 minutes to church. Students remained on the buses and hundreds of parents arrived by car to pick up their kids. Route 102 was lined for a sizable distance as parents parked on both sides of the road, many running over to the busses as they arrived.
School administration with the assistance of Litchfield Police, Fire and law enforcement coordinated getting the children matched to the parents.
After the students were evacuated from their school, a scanner announcement from Litchfield Police indicated “they were beginning their search” at the school property. After about 45 minutes a second radio transmission indicated “primary search complete, secondary search underway.”
Earlier this week a bulletin from the New Hampshire Information and Analysis Center (NHIAC) was sent to school districts around the state regarding online messaging calling for possible school threats on Friday, December 17, 2021. This information was also disseminated nationally, as the origin of the threat appeared to link back to the social media platform TikTok.
Jeffrey Hastings contributed to this report.
