On Wednesday, April 25, the Ellenville Central School District was in a state of heightened alert after it received reports that threats of violence had been made to both individual students and the school at large. The threats caused the school to suspend its students' open campus privileges though extracurricular events like the district's board of education meeting and a Wal-Mart forum were both held on schedule.

Throughout the day the school district attempted to keep parents informed by using the school's radio station, W-ELV 107.9, posting a statement on the school's website and sending a call to the home of every child in the district via the school's automated phone system.

In a statement released by ECSD Superintendent Lisa Wiles, she explained, "On Tuesday evening at approximately 8:45 p.m., the school was notified that two students received threatening text messages on their cell phones."

When asked about the content of the threats, Ellenville Police Chief Phil Mattracion declined to provide any information as to what the messages actually said though most reports suggest it was a bomb threat. However, Mattracion did say that the cell phone that originated the threatening text messages was reported stolen earlier Tuesday evening.

"We launched an intensive investigation and interviewed several people through [Tuesday] night."

Although the police and school officials judged any incidents "unlikely to occur", the chief wanted to make it clear to the community that "everyone took the incident with utmost seriousness."

To that end, Mattracion wished to assure the community, "We, the police, the community and the school, are not going to be held hostage by these heinous and cowardly threats."

In addition to the EPD, the New York State Police, the FBI and multiple canine units were called in to assist on Wednesday and for the continuing investigation. Mattracion vowed to catch the individual or individuals who made the calls, saying, "This is not over. The investigation is continuing and we will pursue it to fruition. We intend to bring the individuals responsible to justice."

Ellenville was not the only school forced to deal with a threat of violence in the past week. Both in the area and across the nation several threats have been made in what appears to be copycat attempts of the Virginia Tech shooting that occurred on Monday, April 16. That tragedy resulted in the deaths of 32 students and faculty at the hands of a lone, mentally unstable, gunman before he turned his gun on himself.

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