Bomb threat causes 37 percent of students to leave school

More than a third of Lawrence’s public school students went home Thursday because of bomb threats, school district officials announced today.

“A total of 3,815 students were checked out of school by parents yesterday due to the threat,” said Julie Boyle, the district’s communications director. “Our enrollment is about 10,300, so that’s about 37 percent of our students.”

The bomb threats came shortly after many schools began their day, so officials put schools in a “semi-lockdown” mode Thursday. That meant they were monitoring entry and exit doors and checking identification of adults who came through.

Police later in the day arrested the man they suspected of calling in the threats on a cell phone.

Michael E. Parker, 47, of 1202 N.Y., was arrested on three counts of making an aggravated criminal threat. The arrest followed an interrogation and a search warrant at his home, where they found a wireless phone believed to have been used to make the calls. No evidence of explosives was found.