Washington Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) reported on Wednesday that multiple schools in the US capital city were being evacuated due to bomb threats against them.
About 80 minutes after announcing the evacuations, MPD tweeted that "each of the schools have been cleared with no hazardous material found."
"MPD is responding to multiple bomb threats around the District including DCPS and DC Charter Schools," the city's police department tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. "Schools are currently being evacuated. Investigations are ongoing."
District of Columbia Public Schools spokesperson Enrique Gutierrez told local media there were "security threats" at Dunbar High School, Theodore Roosevelt High School, and Ron Brown College Preparatory High School. However, MPD also mentioned several other schools that received threats as well.
"All students and staff were safely evacuated in accordance with DCPS protocols. DC Public Schools values the safety of all our students, staff, and visitors and will continue to offer support to our school communities while the MPD investigations are ongoing," Gutierrez added.
Dunbar High School, located in the city's Truxton Circle neighborhood, was also evacuated a day prior due to another bomb threat made when Second Husband Doug Emhoff was visiting the school for an event.
All three targeted high schools have majority-Black student bodies.
This also comes just days after Howard University, a Historic Black University in the city, also had a bomb threat made against it. It was just one of 14 HBCUs against which threats were made at the beginning of Black History Month. Others included Bowie State University and Morgan State University, both in nearby Maryland.
Both the US Department of Justice and civil rights groups have warned of a dangerous rise in white supremacist and white nationalist groups and propaganda in the United States in recent years. They have targeted Black, Latino, Asian, and Jewish people and institutions, as well as those of the LGBTQ community.