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Grand Street High School Evacuated Over Suspicious Package, Cops Say

 An NYPD bomb squad investigated a discarded suitcase near the Grand Street Campus Thursday morning, officials said.
An NYPD bomb squad investigated a discarded suitcase near the Grand Street Campus Thursday morning, officials said.
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Department of Education

NEW YORK CITY — A Grand Street high school campus was temporarily evacuated Thursday morning when police received a call about an abandoned suitcase near its front entrance, officials said. 

Cops received a call reporting an unattended suitcase lying in front of the campus at 850 Grand St. about 7:30 a.m., according to the NYPD and the Department of Education.

The bomb squad determined that the suitcase was empty and not a threat about 9:15 a.m., a police spokesman said.

Students at the campus' three schools — the School for Legal Studies, Progress High School for Professional Careers, and the High School for Enterprise, Business, and Technology — were all evacuated to the athletic field in the rear during the investigation, an education spokeswoman said.

Wanda Darden, mother of a senior at Enterprise, said she started to panic when her son called her to say he had been evacuated because of a bomb threat, but had little other information.

"He doesn’t usually call me in the middle of the day, which made me feel a little alarmed," Darden said in a phone interview. "I wasn't sure what was going on. What do you do in that situation?"

Her son, who studies theater and plans to attend Marymount Manhattan College in the fall, was shaken by the confusion, she said.

"It wasn't a big deal, but he was afraid, so it’s good as a parent to at least know something," she added.

No injuries were reported.

L trains temporarily bypassed the nearby Grand Street Station because of the investigation, but full service was restored by 9:30 a.m., according to the MTA.