Sandy Hook School dismissed Friday after receiving threat on shooting anniversary

Students at Sandy Hook Elementary School were sent home Friday after police say the school received a threat.

Students had been dismissed by late morning, officials said, but police were confident they were not in danger and the threat may have been a hoax.

“We are confident that everyone is going to be safe, but we always have to investigate every threat,” said police Lt. Aaron Bahamonde.

He added: “Out of an abundance of caution, officers are checking the area and making sure the kids are safe as they are being dismissed.”

The threat comes on the sixth anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, when 20 first-grade students and six educators were killed by a lone gunman.

Newtown Action Alliance, a grass-roots gun violence organization founded in the wake of the deadly shooting, said in a Tweet about the threat: “Please stand with our community as we attempt to survive another tragic anniversary.”

Responding to the tweet, Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) said: “My heart is breaking.”

It is unclear whether this threat was connected to hundreds of bomb threats received at schools, businesses and other public facilities across the country this week.

Bahamonde would not say how the threat was received on Friday. “It’s under investigation,” he said.

Following the December 2014 tragedy, students were moved to a temporary school in nearby Monroe. The original Sandy Hook Elementary School was razed 2013, months after the massacre.

Students now attend classes in a new building opened in the fall of 2016 on the same site as the Sandy Hook shooting.