BURNSVILLE — A bomb threat lead to an evacuation of East Yancey Middle School in Burnsville last week.
The bomb scare emptied the campus early in the school day last Wednesday, but the situation was more or less resolved before noon.
"A building sweep was conducted at East Yancey Middle School this morning and there were no subs-tantiated threats located," school officials said in a final update to families at 11:30
a.m. Wednesday. "We will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement as the investigation continues." The Yancey County Sheriff's Office had issued an alert about the situation through its cellphone app at 8:44 a.m. that same day. "Notes were discovered this morning at East Yancey Middle School stating 'I have a bomb,'" the alert said. "We followed safety procedures and evacuated students as the building was searched. In the meantime, the Yancey County Sheriff's Office has located two possible sus-pects."
The evacuation pro-ceeded quickly, with the sheriff's office announcing the students had been removed to a second location before 9 a.m
"All East Yancey Middle School students are currently located at Cane River Middle School," the Sheriff's Office said in its second alert message. "Thank you for your patience and understanding."
By 10 a.m. Wednesday the Sheriff's Office was inclined to think the bomb threat was just a hoax, but officers were still searching the campus thoroughly "out of an abundance of caution." "Based on the investi-gation thus far, including the identification of the juvenile subjects believed to be involved, we believe this incident appears to be a hoax," the Sheriff's Office said at the time. "At this time, nothing of concern has been located other than the notes that prompted the response, and no credible threat has been identified." Because they are juveniles, the names of the suspects were not released. The Yancey County Sheriff's Office declared the middle school cleared by 1:35 a.m
"East Yancey Middle School has been cleared by the Yancey County Sheriff's Office with the assistance of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. No active threat was identified," the final update read.