Hilton, NY (March 26, 2023) On two occasions this past week, the Hilton Central School District was the target of anonymous email threats. As you can imagine, these threats were alarming not only to the students and staff, but to the community as well. In each of these incidents, the School administration, MCSO and Greece PD cooperated to be able to provide for the immediate safety of those effected as well as to be able to conduct as thorough of an investigation as possible.
The investigation has been conducted with the assistance of our federal law enforcement partners, who have been able to confirm that a handful of other communities across the country had received somewhat similar email threats. The common trait amongst these emails is the use of overseas email addresses and routing the messages through overseas servers, all to conceal their identity. In each of these independent investigations, no credible threat has been identified. We have not found any links between these emails and local individuals wishing harm on the school. This has clearly been a hoax meant to cause panic and disruption in our school community.
We are not naive to think these emails will suddenly end, and should they continue, we will investigate them. Since these emails lack all credibility, we fully support the district’s authority to not allow these threats to disrupt the education our students deserve. Should additional legitimate information come forward, we will respond accordingly and take all necessary precautions.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Greece Police Department are continuing to support the Hilton School District with their return to normal operations. Over the weekend the district has implemented additional security measures above and beyond what is expected for this situation, all in an effort to ease concerns. We are confident that the district administration is taking all reasonable and necessary measures to ensure students and staff feel safe to return to school.
We are asking the community for your cooperation and understanding as we deal with this situation.