Suspicious box prompts short day for Whitewright students

WHITEWRIGHT, Texas (KTEN) — Whitewright schools alerted parents Thursday morning that students were going home early after the district's police force said a small, brown, unlabeled box was found on campus.

In a Facebook post, Middle School Principal Charles Nash said the decision to suspend classes was made "for precautionary purposes only."

Students were moved away from the elementary and school campuses to the high school football stadium for pickup. Nash said buses would run at 11:30 a.m. 

The Plano Police Department Bomb Squad was summoned to examine the suspicious package and Grayson County deputies were also on campus during the incident.

Whitewright ISD received the all clear around 12:30 p.m. after the box was determined to be harmless.

"It was encouraging to know that the authorities expressed to us that we handled the unusual situation by the book and followed policy accordingly in order to keep our children safe," Superintendent Brian Garner said in a written statement.

Whitewright ISD serves almost 750 students in grades pre-K through 12.