Second gentleman Doug Emhoff evacuated from DC high school due to bomb threat

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service evacuated second gentleman Doug Emhoff from a Washington high school on Tuesday afternoon following a bomb threat.

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Katie Peters, Emhoff’s communications director, said in a statement that the second gentleman was safe after Tuesday’s incident.

U.S. Secret Service was made aware of a security threat at a school where the @SecondGentleman was meeting with students and faculty. Mr. Emhoff is safe and the school has been evacuated. We are grateful to Secret Service and D.C. Police for their work.
— Katie Peters (@KatiePeters46) February 8, 2022

The husband to Vice President Kamala Harris was evacuated from Dunbar High School amid an event to commemorate Black History Month. He was in the middle of a presentation when he was whisked out of the room by a Secret Service agent just before 2:20 p.m., WJLA-TV reported.

Around 2:35 p.m., an announcement over the school’s intercom urged teachers and students to evacuate, according to White House press pool reports. Enrique Gutierrez, a spokesperson for District of Columbia Public Schools, said officials “took the precaution of evacuating everybody” after the school received a bomb threat.

“I think everyone is safe,” he said, according to the White House press pool. “The building is clear. But I don’t have any specific details at this moment.”

Dunbar High School principal Nadine Smith said around 3 p.m. that officials expected it to take an hour or two to clear the building. In the meantime, she said students were being sent home.

Dunbar, in northwest D.C., was the first high school in the country to serve African American students. Emhoff was visiting to learn about a program in which students get the opportunity to serve as docents and historical scholars on the life of the historian and author Carter Woodson and local Black history.

Tuesday’s bomb threat came one week after several historically Black colleges and universities received bomb threats. Six juveniles have since been identified as persons of interest in the incidents.

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