GIRARD, Ill., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Written bomb threats prompted officials to cancel school classes Tuesday in Girard and Virden, Ill., authorities said.
Girard Police Chief David Campbell said he recommended that classes in the two southern Illinois towns be called off as a precaution after vandals smashed 32 windows and left bomb threats at the Girard school grounds, The (Springfield, Ill.) State Journal-Register reported.
After discovering the damage at Girard Monday morning, an identical bomb threat was found written in a restroom at the Virden middle school/high school building, although there no vandalism there, the newspaper said.
"(The closure) will be district-wide simply because we're not sure what's going on," Virden School Superintendent Ron Graham said.
A spray-painted message left on a shed at the Girard school said, "Boom! 11 17-09," while another threat, written with cutout magazine letters on a piece of cardboard, was found at the school "basically saying that this (expletive) place will blow on 11-17-09," Graham told the State Journal-Register.
