Goshen Middle School dance evacuated after AirDrop threat

Tonight’s 7th and 8th Grade Dance at C.J. Hooker Middle School, originally scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m., ended abruptly at 7:30 this evening when a student received a threatening AirDrop message.

The event is an annual rite of passage for Goshen students. For many 7th graders, it was their first school dance.

The student who received the threat informed staff in the building, which was then immediately evacuated with help from Village of Goshen Police. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department also swept the school with a dog trained to sniff out explosives. No evidence of weapons or explosives was found.

Following the Village of Goshen’s investigation, two students were charged with one count of Falsely Reporting an Incident in the First Degree, a class D- Felony, according to Goshen Central School District’s latest update. They were released to their parents with appearance tickets for Orange County Family Court.

The incident happened just one day after an AirDrop gun threat at Goshen High School put the building into hold-in-place for four hours while police secured the building, searched for weapons, and investigated students’ phones.

AirDrop is a way to send files, such as photos, between nearby Apple devices over Bluetooth. Recipients only see the sender’s “device name,” which can easily be changed. Depending on various factors, the message may or may not be traceable by police. Despite searching students’ phones at the high school, police were unable to identify who sent yesterday’s threatening message.

If you are a parent or student in the Goshen school district and are willing to share your thoughts or experiences about this week’s AirDrop threats, please email reporter Molly Colgan at molly.colgan@strausnews.com

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more details become available.