Michelle Kim

Pressure Cooker in Backpack Sparks High School Evacuation on Locker Clean-Out Day: Police

What to Know

  • Hewlett High School on Long Island was evacuated Friday for a report of a suspicious device
  • The device was a pressure cooker in a backpack, found during locker-cleaning day on the last day of the high school's classes
  • The pressure cooker turned out to be the remains of a science project, police say

A Long Island high school was evacuated when school authorities found a pressure cooker inside a student's backpack on locker-cleaning day.

Police say students' lockers were being cleared out on the last day of classes at Hewlett High School, and authorities found the pressure cooker, which turned out to be the remains of a science project and nothing sinister. 

Special ops and bomb detectives responded to the school to investigate a report of a suspicious device around 12:30 p.m., and the school was evacuated as a precaution. 

Photos posted to social media show students escorted onto the football field at Hewlett High School. A helicopter and other police units also responded, according to the mother of a 16-year-old junior at the school.

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