A Maine sheriff’s office has charged an 11-year-old boy for allegedly bringing a suspicious device on a school bus.
On Thursday, a bus driver in New Gloucester, about a 40-minute drive north of Portland, pulled over and evacuated a bus transporting about 15 middle and high school students.
Authorities responded to the scene, including the Maine State Police Bomb Squad with a bomb detection K-9 team, and it was determined that there was “no longer a potential threat to the school district, students or public,” the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
“Immediate steps were taken to shut the road down, create a safe environment, evacuate the bus of the few students who were on it and make that scene safe,” Lieutenant Jim Estabrook of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 11-year-old boy and the device were later found at his home. Investigators determined that the suspicious device was not an explosive. The boy, who is in sixth grade, was charged with terrorizing. He has since been conditionally released to his parents.
Newsweek reached out to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office via telephone for comment on Friday late afternoon.
An electric school bus is parked at the Coral Reef High School on March 11, 2024, in Richmond Heights, Florida. A Maine sheriff’s office has charged an 11-year-old boy for allegedly bringing a suspicious device on a school bus.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Craig King, the superintendent of Gray-News Gloucester schools where the students on the bus attend, said that the bus driver called the school “for a possible threat” during the afternoon student drop-off.
“It was proven that the bus was safe and the kids were safe,” King told the Portland Press Herald. “But we had to investigate to make sure.”
The superintendent said the last time he could remember a bus having to pull over for a safety concern was over a year ago. He said Thursday’s incident was the first time a bus driver’s concerns reached the level that it did.
King added that a few school officials helped police in response to the incident, saying, “I think people did a really good job at sorting out the situation in the moment.”
The superintendent told families in a statement that students reported that they witnessed another student showing and talking about a suspicious device.
Following the incident, students who were on the bus were transported to a nearby location to be reunited with their families.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s office thanked the Gray-New Gloucester schools administration and the bus driver “for their immediate action and handling of this situation.”
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
