School board president Eric DiTullio reiterated in a statement to district families that rumors of a lockdown and arrests at Seneca Valley School District were untrue.

“As School Board President, I want to first begin by reiterating once more that the rumors of weapons, arrests and lock downs at the secondary campus, grades 7-12, this morning are not true and did not happen,” DiTullio wrote. “Equally as important, the threats being widely shared on social media are not credible.”

He announced that the scheduled school board meeting Thursday evening would be canceled in light of the recent events and that “additional opportunities to review masking will take place in January.”

“Until that time, we will continue to move forward with masking as per the current SV Health & Safety Plan,” he said. “Once again, if you have pertinent information that will help the administration or police regarding situations in the District, please contact District Administration or the police directly.”

DiTullio thanked local first responders and school staff for their handling of the situation.

“The unfolding of events today created a sense of fear across the campus and community,” he said, “and we are grateful for our local police departments, district crisis team, administration and staff for their professionalism and diligence in handling this in a calm and careful manner.”

In an earlier statement, Seneca Valley superintendent Dr. Tracy Vitale said that the district was aware of “discussions are taking place across social media platforms (parents on Facebook, students on Snapchat)” regarding a threat on the district's secondary campus, grades seven to 12, but that the rumors were untrue.

“Please know our students and staff are safe,” Vitale's statement read. “The police have investigated these reports and have found them to be non-credible. Normally, we would not address such rumors. However, due to the wide sharing of this misinformation, we felt it important to address it at this time.”

Chief Terry Seilhamer of the Jackson Township Police Department said that the threats have “no credibility” and that the department and district had thoroughly investigated, finding no credible threat.

The rumors, he said, were akin to a game of “Telephone.” “Every time we found a rumor and found it had no credibility to it, another one sprung up with some variation,” he said.

“Obviously, we take all these things seriously. We're going to investigate them,” Seilhamer said. “But it does use a lot of time and resources to find out it's just the same rumor but somebody gave a different twist to it.”

Several posts and comments on Facebook made false claims, such as an erroneous assertion a student was removed from a Seneca Valley school Thursday in handcuffs, or that police seized multiple weapons from inside a Seneca building. Seilhamer flatly denied such claims, saying no student had been removed by police, no student entered with a weapon and, as Jackson police are aware, no student or community member made a threat to use a firearm at any Seneca school.

He added he understands parents' concerns with regards to student safety, but encouraged anyone concerned to contact police with or for information.

“I just wish, if people had a concern, they would contact either the school district or the Jackson Township police and we would be happy to give them the information that we have available, instead of posting on social media or looking at social media and accepting that as the facts,” he said.