The Atlantic County Special Services School in Mays Landing went into a "preliminary lockdown" Friday afternoon due to a text-messaged threat to a student’s mother, Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain said in a statement.
The woman received the text message at 1:38 p.m. at her Newtonville, Buena Vista Township home while her child was in class, a prosecutor’s office statement said.
“The sender of the text message threatened to do violence to both her and her child,” the statement said. “The message is believed to have come from a person known to her.”
The victim contacted New Jersey State Police, who came to her home while the Special Services School initiated emergency lockdown procedures
"No one was let in or out of the building, but it was business as usual inside the building," Superintendent Lizabeth Buoro said.
The lockdown was handled by a school resource officer with the Atlantic County Sheriff's Office, she said.
All students were dismissed and allowed to leave at the normal time, Buoro said.
The Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation of the incident, Sheriff Frank Balles said.
