Four Staten Island high schools received bomb threats within a period of about 10 minutes Tuesday, police said, and all of the schools were evacuated as a precaution as authorities investigated.
Susan E. Wagner High School on Manor Road reported a bomb threat around 11 a.m. and the building was evacuated, police said.
Over the next several minutes, police say bomb threats also were called in to Curtis High School on Hamilton Avenue, the borough's oldest high school, established in 1904, Concord High School on Rhine Avenue and Ralph R. McKee Career and Technical Education High School on St. Mark's Place.
All four buildings are within about 5 miles of each other, authorities said. Students were permitted to return to the buildings shortly before noon.
The nature of the threats wasn't clear, and police say the mode varied. One high school had two threats called in, another received a threatening email and a third had one bomb threat phoned in. It wasn't clear how the threat was communicated in the case of the fourth school.
Additional security was dispatched to the schools, which were going to send students home to their parents with a letter from the administration sharing relevant information about Tuesday's threats and the district's response to those threats, authorities said.
The Department of Education said in a statement it takes such matters "very seriously" and was following all appropriate safety protocols.
