Reliably Austin
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Two Round Rock ISD Schools Evacuated

Williamson County Incident Management Vehicle

Updated at 4:45pm: Round Rock school officials say the school is still being searched.  The WilCo Sheriff's Office is giving them a tentative re-opening time of 7 pm.  As of now, the search has not yielded anything out of the ordinary.   RRISD officials say, as far as they can tell, school is still on at Deerpark and Live Oak as usual on Wednesday.

Updated at 2:45 pm: Bomb sniffing dogs are searching Deerpark Middle School and Live Oak Elementary School in Round Rock. Both schools were evacuated around noon due because of a bomb threat.

Matt Largey just attended a joint news conference with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office and the Round Rock Independent School District.

The Sheriff's Office says it received a threat last night around 10:30, but didn't take it seriously because they receive threats like that all the time.

But when school resumed this morning, some students were repeating that they had also heard the threat. Details started to get more specific, and the bomb threat started to shape into something more than what police would normally consider a hoax.

As a precaution, officials made a decision to evacuate both schools around noon. Students were transported by school bus to the McNeil High School gymnasium. Parents were invited to pick up their kids starting at 1:30 p.m.

Round Rock ISD says it sees no reason to cancel school tomorrow.

Download raw, unedited audio of the news conference here:

Round Rock ISD spokesperson JoyLynn Occhiuzzi (Read transcript)

John Foster with Williamson County Sheriff's Office (Read transcript)

Earlier: The Round Rock Independent School District confirms that students at Deerpark Middle School and Live Oak Elementary School have been evacuated due to an unspecified threat.

The two schools are located along Anderson Mill Road, east of Turtle Rock Road in north Austin.  According to the RRISD website, students from the middle school are being taken to the McNeil High School gymnasium; students from the elementary school are being housed at the district performing arts center.  Children will be held at these locations until their normal release time.

District officials are working with the Williamson County Sheriff's Department to determine whether the schools are in any danger.

Ian Crawford joined KUT as News Editor in 2008, after spending over four years as a reporter/anchor at KLBJ Radio in Austin. He began his broadcasting career while still in high school in Southern Oregon. During high school and college at the University of Oregon, he worked at times as a reporter, news anchor, sports play-by-play reporter, music host and commercial producer before moving to Texas in 2003.
Matt Largey is the Projects Editor at KUT. That means doing a little bit of everything: editing reporters, producing podcasts, reporting, training, producing live events and always being on the lookout for things that make his ears perk up. Got a tip? Email him at mlargey@kut.org. Follow him on Twitter @mattlargey.