John Jefferson
Ohio’s governor is deploying the Ohio state highway patrol to provide security to schools in the city of Springfield in response to more than 30 bomb threats the schools have received since former president Donald Trump repeated false claims about Haitian immigrants in the city eating people’s pets during the presidential debate last week.
In a statement Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, said that many of the bomb threats were coming in from overseas, “made by those who want to fuel the current discord surrounding Springfield”.
“We cannot let the bad guys win,” he continued. “We must take every threat seriously, but children deserve to be in school, and parents deserve to know that their kids are safe. The added security will help ease some of the fears caused by these hoaxes.”
None of the threats that have come in to Springfield to date have been legitimate, the governor said, adding that the enhanced security was being used purely “as a precaution to prevent further disruption” within the Springfield city school district.
The enhanced security, which consists of 36 troopers stationed throughout the Springfield city school district, is set to begin on Tuesday, the governor said, and will continue for the foreseeable future.
“Troopers will sweep each building for threats before students and faculty arrive and will stay on-site to provide security throughout the school day and during dismissal,” the announcement reads.
During a news conference on Monday, DeWine said that at least 33 separate bomb threats had been received at Springfield schools, adding that “each one of which has been responded to, and each one of whom has been found as a hoax”.
DeWine also directed Ohio homeland security to begin conducting vulnerability assessments on critical infrastructure in Springfield and to provide various tower cameras for use by the Springfield police department to enhance situational awareness.
The Ohio department of public safety has also arranged for bomb detection dogs to be stationed in Springfield each day.
This comes as last week, local officials said that two hospitals in Springfield were sent into lockdown after bomb threats, and other bomb threats had been called in to government buildings, forcing their closure and causing local schools to be evacuated.
The bomb threats in Springfield began last week, after the presidential debate on 10 September between Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris, in which Trump repeated an unfounded and baseless social media rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were abducting and eating local pets.
The rumor apparently originated from a viral video of a resident of Springfield telling the town’s council that immigrants in the community had killed ducks from a local park for food.
During the debate, one of the moderators from ABC News, said that the city manager in Springfield said that there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.
Before Trump mentioned the rumor during the debate, his running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance had also promoted the baseless claim that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield were abducting and eating pets.
According to the New York Times, between 12,000 and 20,000 Haitian immigrants live in Springfield, Ohio, with most having come to the US legally. Many have found work in factories and warehouses that had been struggling to fill job openings, the Associated Press reported.
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