"This morning an envelope containing white powder with a note, 'open me,' was found tapped to a stall in the second-floor boys bathroom," read a letter addressed to parents and guardians that was sent home with students. The letter was signed by Sayer, Director of Public Health Epi Bodhi and Principal Steve Myers.
"Precautions are being taken," said Bodhi. "We think it's a hoax, we're pretty sure it is a hoax."
"While we suspect it was a prank, we have sent the substance to the Massachusetts department of public health lab for testing. The state lab officials have said the circumstances make this a low-risk situation. There have been other hoaxes in schools throughout the state," the letter continued.
"To be absolutely safe, the superintendent has determined that the school must be closed and no access permitted until the test results are returned on Thursday. School will reopen Friday unless otherwise notified through the media," the letter said.
Students and parents have experienced similar scares, like bomb threats in past years. "My reaction is that I am not surprised, unfortunately," said Chair of the Amherst Regional parent center advisory board Laurie Benoit, whose daughter Anna is a sophomore at the school. Benoit attributed her lack of surprise to the occurrence of several bomb threats at the school following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
But Benoit said that she agrees with the superintendent's decision to close the school.
"I'd also like to point out that none of us should assume that a student did this," Benoit added, emphasizing that many people besides students have access to the school. "I'm not happy abut it ... I'm not as much concerned that it is anthrax ... as I am about the fear that it causes in the hearts and minds of these impressionable young people."
Students were informed about the suspicious envelope and evacuated from the school shortly after noon on Tuesday.
High school sophomore Joshua Lipkowitz said that he learned of the anthrax threat from other students. "There were some rumors about it," he said. "It was one thing to be having bomb scares when we knew they were going to be pranks. This is a little more serious."
"I don't think any kid would be able to get a hold of [anthrax]," said Lipkowitz. "I don't think it is good to be pranking like that at a time like this."
The school has also taken precautions in the chance that the letter was not a prank.
"Any boy who used the second-floor bathroom this morning should come to the office so that he can be notified in the remote possibility that this substance is not a hoax," the letter sent home to parents read. "We will have the results within 48 hours, which gives us plenty of time to begin a necessary treatment."
Sophomore Reid Kaufmann used the second-floor bathroom Tuesday, though he did not see the letter. "There were a bunch of students that were in that bathroom before it happened," he said.
"I though it was pretty scary that something like this happened at Amherst," said Kaufmann. He added that he believes that the incident was simply a student playing a prank.
The high school will reopen Friday if the test results confirm that the scare was in fact a prank. Lab results should be available 48 hours after the testing of the envelope.
All other Amherst schools are remaining open. A recorded phone message in the principal's office at the high school said that school had been closed and that a letter had been sent home to parents.
"The decision to close the school was a difficult one," read the letter. "No one wants to disrupt the students' education, sporting events and other activities, but it was determined, in light of the current events and Attorney General's warning last night, that this must be treated seriously."
According to a recorded statement on the main telephone line of the high school, school officials and authorities have requested that anyone with information about the origin of the envelope contact the police or Myers.
Though the College remains unaffected by the events at the high school, Professor of Biology Richard Goldsby received a suspicious package in mid-October. The FBI was contacted and the package was not found to contain any hazardous materials.
"We have developed a protocol for dealing with suspicious packages here," said Chief of Campus Police John Carter, in reference to how the College would approach a similar situation. "If there was a package and there was some spillage, there would definitely be some closing of an area. Our first goal would be to isolate this so it wouldn't be tracked all over the area."