An envelope containing an unidentified white powder was mailed to the Dedham Middle School on Tuesday, March 6, according to Dedham Fire Lieutenant Stephen Lynch.
The Dedham Middle School at 70 Whiting Ave., was placed under lockdown and students were told to stay in classrooms while hazmat teams analyzed the letter. Children were released from school about 2:30 p.m., according to our newspartners at WCVB.
“I am just happy everything worked out and everyone is fine,” Dedham Middle School principal Debra Gately said at the school around 3 p.m. She said the students were released on time.
Gately said an email was sent home to parents to inform them about the incident at the school.
Students were away from the powder, according to Lynch. He and others responded after a call to dispatch that the school secretary received an envelope containing mysterious white powder, Lynch said.
Gately confirmed that the letter was mailed from Texas.
“No one has any symptoms or anything; we're just following protocol," Lynch said.
The terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and subsequent terrorist mailing scare prompted the Dedham Fire Department to establish protocols about this exact scenario, according to Lynch.
The school remains open to voters casting ballots for the presidential primary.
At 3 p.m. yellow caution tape was outside the school as investigators were inside.
A similar mailing happened on Tuesday, March 6 at Memorial Elementary School in Milford. According to the Milford Daily News a Reverse 911 call was sent to Milford residents around 11 a.m. stating a white envelope from Texas containing white powder was found near the principal’s office.
The powder was later identified as cornstarch.
A third school also received a package, according to WCVB. In Rhode Island, the Greenbush Elementary School in West Warwick also received an envelope with white powder, school officials said. The school called a lock down at 12:30 p.m., but students are being dismissed from school as regularly scheduled.
According to our newspartners at WCVB, last May, authorities investigated more than three dozen suspicious letters that were mailed to District of Columbia schools and appeared to have been sent from the Dallas area.
The FBI analyzed the letters and no hazardous substances were found in any of the envelopes, and no one was injured or became ill after coming into contact with them. They were tested at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.
An unidentified law enforcement official at the time said the envelopes contained a letter referring to al-Qaida and the FBI, and described the white powder as having the look and consistency of cornstarch.
The envelopes were addressed to the schools and not to individuals, and the addresses were printed, the FBI said. Agents said the sending of such letters was a "serious criminal offense."
U.S. authorities have been wary of powdery substances in letters ever since a series of anthrax mailings following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Five people died in October and November 2001 from anthrax inhalation or exposure linked to the letters. The government eventually determined that Bruce Ivins, a researcher who worked at Fort Detrick in Maryland, and who later committed suicide, was behind the mailings of powdered spores.
An envelope containing an unidentified white powder was mailed to the Dedham Middle School on Tuesday, March 6, according to Dedham Fire Lieutenant Stephen Lynch.
The Dedham Middle School at 70 Whiting Ave., was placed under lockdown and students were told to stay in classrooms while hazmat teams analyzed the letter. Children were released from school about 2:30 p.m., according to our newspartners at WCVB.
“I am just happy everything worked out and everyone is fine,” Dedham Middle School principal Debra Gately said at the school around 3 p.m. She said the students were released on time.
Gately said an email was sent home to parents to inform them about the incident at the school.
Students were away from the powder, according to Lynch. He and others responded after a call to dispatch that the school secretary received an envelope containing mysterious white powder, Lynch said.
Gately confirmed that the letter was mailed from Texas.
“No one has any symptoms or anything; we're just following protocol," Lynch said.
The terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and subsequent terrorist mailing scare prompted the Dedham Fire Department to establish protocols about this exact scenario, according to Lynch.
The school remains open to voters casting ballots for the presidential primary.
At 3 p.m. yellow caution tape was outside the school as investigators were inside.
A similar mailing happened on Tuesday, March 6 at Memorial Elementary School in Milford. According to the Milford Daily News a Reverse 911 call was sent to Milford residents around 11 a.m. stating a white envelope from Texas containing white powder was found near the principal’s office.
The powder was later identified as cornstarch.
A third school also received a package, according to WCVB. In Rhode Island, the Greenbush Elementary School in West Warwick also received an envelope with white powder, school officials said. The school called a lock down at 12:30 p.m., but students are being dismissed from school as regularly scheduled.
According to our newspartners at WCVB, last May, authorities investigated more than three dozen suspicious letters that were mailed to District of Columbia schools and appeared to have been sent from the Dallas area.
The FBI analyzed the letters and no hazardous substances were found in any of the envelopes, and no one was injured or became ill after coming into contact with them. They were tested at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.
An unidentified law enforcement official at the time said the envelopes contained a letter referring to al-Qaida and the FBI, and described the white powder as having the look and consistency of cornstarch.
The envelopes were addressed to the schools and not to individuals, and the addresses were printed, the FBI said. Agents said the sending of such letters was a "serious criminal offense."
U.S. authorities have been wary of powdery substances in letters ever since a series of anthrax mailings following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Five people died in October and November 2001 from anthrax inhalation or exposure linked to the letters. The government eventually determined that Bruce Ivins, a researcher who worked at Fort Detrick in Maryland, and who later committed suicide, was behind the mailings of powdered spores.
