Arlington Police Probes Threatening Emails to School Committee

The Arlington Police Department has opened an investigation into several threatening emails sent to School Committee members after they were thrust into the national spotlight for their stance on the Pledge of Allegiance.

"We have opened an investigation into these threatening emails," said Arlington Police Captain Robert Bongiorno. Though he would not specify to whom the emails were sent, he did say: "Some of them were anti-semitic in nature."

The threats came during a day full of calls, emails and faxes from around the country to members of the School Commitee and administration regarding Arlington High School Senior Sean Harrington's impassioned plea last week to the School Commitee to reinstate the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at the high school.

On June 30, Fox News picked up on the story and interviewed Harrington for a national spot. Since then, it has been on the front page of Fox News' website and garnered thousands of comments.

"It is unfortunate that the national media has chosen to distort this very serious debate in a manner, which so badly misinforms the public," said School Committee Chairman Joseph Curro in a released statement. "Recent reports have done little to present the facts about our school system and our community, and have been seized upon by many people throughout the country to target our dedicated school leaders with unwarranted hate mail and threats."

Bongiorno called the emails, "offensive, hateful, potentially criminal." He also promised that the Arlington Police intend to "ensure everybody's safety."