School safe after bomb squad scare

SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Some elementary school students had a tense end to their day when police, fire rescue and the bomb squad swarmed Caribbean Elementary School to investigate reports of two suspicious devices.

After the delay of school dismissal, members of the bomb squad determined that the items posed no threat. Someone found the oval-shaped objects in front of the main entrance to the school, located at 11990 SW 200th Street, Tuesday afternoon.

Students at first had to stay in class as the emergency units reported to the scene. Just after 3 p.m. the bomb squad activated a robot to investigate the device. It shook them and set them down. Then a bomb squad technician dressed in a protective suit went out to the object to have a look. He gave the thumbs up and a second technician in plain clothes walked over, picked them up, and carried them away.

Investigators later determined the objects-- originally feared to be grenades-- where only weights used to submerge fishing nets.

As officials investigated the scene they had to temporarily close Southwest 200 Street. Meanwhile, the students were dismissed from an alternate site on the southeast side of the school. Buses were driven to the school field to pick up students during what administrators deemed "a controlled dismissal." Parents also picked up their children in that area.

This presumed threat came during a rough time for Miami-Dade Schools. Just last week, a student died at Coral Gables High School, when a fellow pupil stabbed him in the school's courtyard. Juan Carlos Rivera, just 17 when he died, had his funeral today.

Just days after the fatality, police investigated several reports of weapons at Miami-Dade schools as well as threats to other students, resulting in several arrests. Some of the weapons recovered over that last week included loaded guns, knives and a Taser gun.

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