Newburgh Schools Delay After Racially Charged Threats

A racially-charged threat against two local schools is causing concern from parents as the entire district is delayed on Tuesday.

The Newburgh Enlarged City School District announced early Tuesday morning that schools would be on a two-hour delay. The change in schedule comes after officials were made aware of threats made against some of the schools in the district.

Acting Superintendent of Schools, Ed Forgit, says that the district is working with local law enforcement into an investigation into the threats that many parents say they saw on social media.

Out of an abundance of caution, every school in the district will open on a two-hour delay schedule for Tuesday, April 26, 2022. This time will allow for coordination with multiple agencies of local law enforcement and will provide our team time to coordinate crisis intervention supports that will be available for all students, faculty, and staff.

Forgit went on to tell families that he was "deeply saddened" by the racially charged nature of the messages, thanking those who saw them and shared their concerns with the district.

We've been able to review some of the messages that parents are concerned about. Although we will not reprint them here, the messages we've seen reference the KKK and say that harm will come to minority students. There is a threat about getting revenge for an alleged bullying incident which the writer blames Black students for, using offensive and racist language.

Another message mentions both South and Heritage middle schools by name and includes a photo of an assault-style weapon, declaring "I got something for your ass."

Parents have been commenting on the district's Facebook page about the graphic and disturbing nature of the images and messages that have been shared. Many have expressed their concern about sending children into school at all, with some claiming that they will be keeping their children at home in the short term.

Tuesday is the beginning of state math testing for some students, it was unclear if the testing would proceed as planned.