BY MEGAN HENRY
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said on Monday there have been “at least 33” bomb threats in Springfield and he announced troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol will be dispatched to 18 school buildings for the foreseeable future. During a news conference Tuesday, he encouraged parents it was OK to send their children back to school.
“We will continue this protocol as long as it is necessary,” DeWine said. “So you can be assured that we will have troopers there. We will have troopers very visible. These troopers will go through the building before anybody enters that building, to make sure there is no problem. We have not had one of the threats be anything but unfounded. We do not believe there is a real threat out there, but we are certainly not going to take any chances.”
Springfield has recently been thrust in the national spotlight after former president Donald Trump repeated the false claim that Haitian immigrants who have moved to the Clark County city over the years were eating cats and dogs during. State public safety officials and Gov. DeWine have debunked this claim.
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When asked how much money has been spent to address the hoax threats, DeWine said he didn’t think that number could be calculated quickly.
“We have our federal partners who are involved, we have state, we have locals, we got three different levels of government that are very, very much involved,” DeWine said. “I don’t know if I can even guess.”
DeWine and his wife, Fran, visited Simon Kenton Elementary School on Tuesday.
“What we’re told by the teachers is the kids are doing well, we can just see it in the classroom,” DeWine said, noting it looked like a typical classroom. “Teachers also, though, told us that the kids had a tough day (Monday), so that’s not what we want to see. Our goal is to get back to normal and do that just as quickly as we can.”
There was a threat made to a school Tuesday afternoon DeWine said, but quickly added it was “quickly determined by the analyst to be unfounded.” An unfounded bomb threat was made to the Ohio Statehouse Monday morning and DeWine confirmed it was related to what’s been going on in Springfield.
Springfield Local Schools Superintendent Matthew Geha said Tuesday was the first near normal day since last Thursday.
“Our attendance was down (Tuesday),” he said. “There is still a high level of fear due to these unfounded threats and hoaxes that have marred our existence going on a week now. I encourage our parents to please return your students to school.”
An elementary school in the district with 500 students was missing 200 students on Tuesday, Geha said.
“We still had over 50% of the kids there, so I will take that as a win for today, and hopefully that increases to 75% tomorrow,” he said.
DeWine said he has not heard from Trump or his running mate Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, even though Vance backed his previous false claims about Springfield on CNN over the weekend.
Despite a rumored visit to Springfield by Trump, DeWine said he has received no word from the Trump campaign about a potential visit to Springfield. Typically, a visit by a presidential campaign is welcome, but DeWine cautioned such a visit at this time.
“They certainly have the right to be here,” DeWine said. “If any of the candidates come, they will be welcomed by the people of Springfield. I have to speak in reality, though, that resources are really stretched here, and that’s just fact. We’re really focused on keeping kids in school. … It would be fine with me if they decided not to make that stop right now.”
