UHS Evacuated After Threat, Teen Arrested

A 15-year-old Union High School student was taken into custody Monday afternoon and confessed to writing a note that threatened a bomb at the school.

UHS was evacuated Monday morning after school officials were notified of the threat scrawled on a piece of paper at the school.

Union R-XI School Superintendent Steve Bryant said police and fire crews responded to the school about 10:30 a.m. A sweep of the school was conducted after the threat was found, but there was nothing located.

Bryant said that school officials were close to identifying who wrote the message, but then there was a power outage at the school. That is when the school was evacuated.

He noted that the power outage is unrelated to the threat. Students had returned to class by 11:15 a.m.

Teachers conducted a secondary sweep of the school and district officials sent a message to parents.

“We have taken all of the proper precautions, and done all of the normal procedures,” Bryant said. “We will continue to monitor this all day long, but we didn’t find anything to cause alarm.”

He added that administrators and staff followed the correct district protocols.

“They did a really super job following protocols,” he said. As always we want to err on the side of safety.”