Explosive-sniffing dogs cleared Aspen High School today — with one small scare — after a threat written on a men’s-room wall Thursday caused the school to be shut down.
At 7 a.m., today, a team of dogs was taken into the 530-student high school to look for suspected explosives.
“They had one scare, when the dogs pointed at a cabinet in the athletic room,” said Marie Munday, a deputy with the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. “They found a starter’s pistol with a small explosive cap. That was a good test for the dogs, which they passed well.”
Nothing else was found, and the school was cleared at 2 p.m. A series of basketball games inside the school was scheduled to be played tonight and Saturday, as well as a play in the auditorium.
“We’ll have increased security at the games, but the threat is over,” Munday said.
The Sheriff’s Office has received several leads about who wrote the threat and will track them down over the weekend, she said.
Around 4 p.m. Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office was notified that someone had written a threat on the wall of the men’s room saying the school would be blown up Friday.
Sheriff Bob Braudis said he took the threats seriously, adding that making them is a felony by state law.
“Armed robberies, bomb threats, etc., are a quantum leap from petty offenses,” he said. “Our goal is a combination of punitive and therapeutic remedies to this serious breach of our covenants.”
Anyone with information about the written threat is asked to call Investigator Bruce Benjamin at 970-920-5310.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
