Investigation Finds No Weapons At Barnegat High School: Police

BARNEGAT, NJ — No weapons were found at Barnegat High School on Friday after an intensive search and security camera review, Police Chief Keith Germain said.

“The original report was that a student saw another student with a duffel bag that appeared to have the barrel of a gun sticking out of it,” Police Chief Keith Germain wrote on Facebook. “We are confident after a thorough review of security video that the report was unsubstantiated.”

High school students were evacuated from the building to an alternate location on Friday morning after police received a report of a possible weapons threat.

The police department employed seven K-9 teams at the school to systematically search for any weapons.

“We'll be working with the school district to debrief and review the response to this incident so that we can identify areas where we can improve our response in the future,” Germain said. “Our thanks for the overwhelming K9 support from the Ocean County Sheriff's Dept, Stockton University PD, Brick PD and the NJ State Park Police.”

Police will continue to investigate the incident, according to Superintendent Brian Latwis.

"Threats like this are always taken seriously because we can never be too careful when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff," Latwis wrote in an email to parents. "I know some parents were upset that they could not pick their children up as the situation was unfolding, but we had to make sure all students and staff were accounted for before allowing anyone to leave. While the situation was less than ideal, we are grateful for the planning and preparation that allowed us all to respond without hesitation or incident today."

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