Sep 30, 2009 2 min read

Uniontown Area High School was evacuated Tuesday morning after students discovered a bomb threat scrawled on the wall in a bathroom. Uniontown police Officer David J. Rutter said officers were called to the school after the message was discovered by two girls in a bathroom inside the school on Fayette Street.

The threat stated that the school will be ?bombed on 09-29-09,? officials said.

Rutter said Don Homer, the school district?s police chief, contacted the state police and bomb-sniffing dogs were brought to the school to search the premises.

Rutter said city police officers also searched the building.

School officials evacuated all students from the building shortly after 9 a.m., and they were ushered to Bill Power Stadium and held until school buses arrived to take them home.

According to district superintendent Dr. Charles Machesky, all building occupants were evacuated, including the staff, and he noted that he was pleased with the way Assistant Principal Heather Jesso and Homer handled the incident and said the evacuation was smooth and uneventful.

Machesky said that by noon, four dogs and a team of state troopers had inspected the building and no suspicious items were discovered.

?I am confident that we will apprehend this individual that wrote this, and we will do what we did last time and that is prosecute criminally and civilly,? Machesky said.

Machesky also said that once the student is identified, the student will be expelled from school permanently.

?A few years ago when we had a bomb threat we had some copycats, but this time we are not going to mess around. If we have to offer a reward to catch this individual, we will. Whenever children?s safety is involved, we will do what is necessary to protect them,? Machesky said.

He noted that afternoon and evening activities at the school, including a girls volleyball match and a boys soccer game, as well as other practices were canceled.

Machesky said classes and other activities will resume today.