No bomb found

Students were evacuated from Havre High School after a bomb threat was called in Wednesday morning.

"Around the 11 o'clock hour, the school received a call that the school was going to blow up," said acting Havre Police Chief Gabe Matosich. "That's pretty much all they said."

The high school went into code yellow and school buses were driven to the high school to take the students to the Fifth Avenue Christian Church. Once there they were told to call their parents to come and pick them up or wait for the regular bus route at 3:15 p.m.

Matosich said it sounded like a Cut Bank school received the same threat at the same time.

"Our investigators are currently tracking down the phone that was used and getting its location," he said Wednesday. Later, he said they had several leads and were tracking down suspects.

The Malmstrom Air Force Base bomb squad was called, and they flew in by helicopter from Great Falls. After making a sweep of the high school, they detected no trace of a bomb.

After it was deemed safe to return to the high school, Carlson said it would stay open until 7 p.m. so students could return to retrieve their belongings. Classes began as planned this morning.

Carlson praised students and staff for their cooperation in getting the school evacuated to Fifth Avenue Christian Church.

"Our staff and our students did a fabulous job," Carlson said. "There were a lot of people in our community who did a fabulous job working with us."

He said communicating with people about situations like this is always the difficult part. Rumors, hearsay and speculation run rampant.

"The last thing we want to do is give information that isn't accurate," he said. " ... Look for you reputable news sources and that's where the good information is going to be."

He added that releasing information prematurely and insisting that everyone is safe when it is not certain is not the way to handle the situation.

"The last thing you want to do is create chaos where it doesn't need to be," Carlson said.