US schools closed over 'reports of threat'

HOUSTON - Public schools in a city in the US state of Oklahoma were closed on Wednesday over what authorities called "credible reports of a threat."

"Due to credible reports of a threat at the high school, all Bartlesville Public Schools will be closed on Wednesday, December 19," reads a notice posted online by the Bartlesville Public Schools independent school district.

"We expect the situation to be stabilized by the time students are scheduled to return to school on January 2, 2013. During the Winter Break we will be working with the local police department to evaluate current security at all sites and determine recommendations for the safety of our students," the notice adds.

At a news conference on Wednesday morning, school officials said that the schools were closed for the investigation into a report that two males were seen around 4 pm Tuesday near a local senior high school with a rifle.

Superintendent Gary Quinn said at the news conference that the school district determined it was best to close classes while the search for the suspects continues, according to local media reports.

"The safety and security of our students and staff is our number one priority and for that reason we felt it was best to close our schools today," Quinn was quoted as saying.

Bartlesville schools and the community have been rattled since last Friday, when a Bartlesville student was arrested for allegedly plotting a deadly massacre at the Bartlesville High School.

Sammy Chavez, 18, was arrested last Friday at a residence in the city of Bartlesville on charges of threats to kill.

According to Bartlesville police reports, Chavez tried to recruit others to help him with the planned shooting, and he had been researching the Columbine shooting of 1999, a high school massacre in the US state of Colorado that killed 13 and injured over 20, on a school computer.

Last Friday, a shooting rampage at an elementary school in Newtown, the US state of Connecticut, left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead, shocking the whole nation and drawing public attention to topics like school security and gun control.