ATLANTA — The Atlanta Police Department is investigating after responding to a potential bomb threat at Spelman College on Tuesday. Spelman is one of several HBCUS that said they received a similar threat on the same day.
On social media, the college released a statement saying that the Department of Public Safety, along with police, responded to reports of a threat at the Manley College Center.
Atlanta Police said the threat initially through a 911 call. They added that no one was evacuated from the building because it was empty. Additionally, students are not expected to be back on campus until the end of January.
After thoroughly searching, police along with Spelman Public Safety determined the building was secure and there were no devices found.
The Washington Post reported about seven other schools that received similar threats, including University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Florida Memorial University, Howard University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina Central University, Prairie View A&M University. At this time, it is unclear whether these threats are connected; however, all of the campuses issued all clears and found no actual threat.
The news comes just weeks after multiple schools across the country stepped up security in response to threats that went viral on TikTok. Authorities also found these threats to not be credible as well.
In the Atlanta metro area, the Fulton County School District, which is one of the largest school systems in Georgia, has received at least 140 threats this school year so far, according to a statement released in December from the school system.