Two Springfield schools are evacuated as Ohio town is besieged with threats over Haitian migrants debacle

Two Springfield schools were evacuated Friday after the Ohio town was besieged with threats over the Haitian migrant debacle. 

Students from Perrin Woods Elementary School and Snowhill Elementary School were forced out of the building on Friday morning and moved to an ‘alternate district location,’ according to the Springfield City School District. 

Students are now being released back into the care of their parents, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

The schools were evacuated after police received some information. What information police received that caused such alarm is currently unknown. 

Multiple other schools have also been evacuated since yesterday and come after the town received name recognition over claims Haitian migrants are eating cats.

It is unclear if the threats against the schools have any connection to the heated migrant debate in the town. 

Students are now being released back into the care of their parents. The schools were evacuated after police received information. What information police received that caused such alarm is currently unknown

Yesterday, Fulton Elementary School was evacuated and Roosevelt Middle School was closed before the school day even began due to the same information that shut down Perrin Woods and Snowhill, according to The Dispatch. 

However, no other schools have received threats, according to the district. 

City Hall was evacuated after multiple city facilities received bomb threats, The Dispatch reported. Every Clark County building was also shut down out of an ‘abundance of caution.’ 

The bomb threat, obtained by USA Today, was emailed to multiple agencies around 8:30am Thursday saying a bomb would detonate inside the building within hours and referenced the dispelled rumors about Haitian migrants. 

‘My hometown of Springfield is becoming a third world (expletive) because you allowed the federal government to dump these (expletive) here,’ the email read. 

‘We have Haitians eating our animals and then you lie and claim this is not happening when we see this happening. I’m here to send a message, I placed a bomb in the following locations…’ 

The town of Springfield has been a flashpoint in the debate over immigration ever since droves of Haitian migrants arrived in the city in 2020 to fill jobs vacancies.

A Springfield resident (pictured) claimed that Haitian migrants were decapitating ducks in public parks and eating them

Willing to do the blue-collar jobs locals were unenthusiastic about, the Haitians, who were already in the country legally, moved to the town.

Within a few years, 20,000 immigrants arrived, swelling Springfield’s population, which was only 58,000 in 2020.

The Haitians had social security numbers and job permits, paid taxes, and lived in houses that were empty and boarded up as the town shrank. 

The immigrants are there legally and eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status, according to an Immigration FAQ page on the city’s website, which says the total immigration population in Clark County is an estimated 12,000 to 15,000.

Erika Lee, 35, circulated the rumor that a migrants were eating cats on Facebook, with the post eventually making it to Donald Trump’s campaign. 

Lee admitted to NewsGuard that she heard the rumor of Haitian migrants eating cats in her town through her neighbor Kimberly Newton, who heard it through a friend, who heard it from the alleged cat owner.