Crude drawing of shooting, marked ‘April 3, 2017,’ draws security to NJ high school

KEARNY — Classes at a North Jersey high school will be held with an extra police presence on Monday, two months after a threatening drawing listing Monday's date was found.

Kearny School Superintendent Patricia Blood said in a statement on the district website that a cartoon drawing that mentioned a threat against Kearny High School for April 3 first appeared two months ago and was investigated by Kearny Police.

"No additional threats have been received since that time," Blood wrote.

Kearny Police on their Facebook page described the drawing found by a teacher as having "April 3 2017" and a stick figure shooting another, but did not mention a school or location.

An instance of "alarming writing" reported to police on Friday was written by a student as part of a writing assignment and did not contain a threat, according to Blood.

Flood said that any threat is immediately reported to Keany Police to investigate.

"Safety and security is, and always has been, a priority," Blood said.

She said that several measures were taken this school year to improve security at the school, which has 1,731 students, including the front doors of the school being locked at all times and access to the campus secured.

Flood said that PARCC testing will take place as scheduled at the school.

A written bomb threat was found in February by a custodian that was also not credible.

High schools in Neptune and Wall Township received threats last week, both of which turned out to fake.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

More from New Jersey 101.5