A New York City library received a bomb threat Saturday morning just half an hour before a drag queen story class for children was scheduled to begin.
The NYPD confirmed to PEOPLE that at approximately 10:30 a.m., police officers, EMS, bomb squad and canine unit responded to a 911 call about a bomb at the Cortelyou branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The library was then evacuated.
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“Police officers responded to a bomb threat. No devices were found,” a spokesperson for the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information told PEOPLE.
The library was later cleared and is considered safe to re-enter, a police spokesman said, adding that an investigation into the bomb threat was ongoing.
An event called “Drag Story Hour” was listed on the fall schedule on the library’s website. The American Booksellers Association describes Story Hour as a children’s program in which drag queens read stories to children in libraries, schools and bookstores to celebrate diversity, teach compassion and help curb bullying of LGBTQ children.
After the bomb threat incident, Cortelyou’s story class was later moved to Connecticut Muffin, a nearby cafe and pastry shop.
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Firuza Chalimova, a barista at Connecticut Muffin, who worked during the relocated book reading, said “everyone seemed to enjoy it.”
“They were just reading a book,” Chalimova told PEOPLE.
According to the report in New York Postbranch received an email threat from an unknown source in Buffalo, New York, stating that an explosive device was set to detonate inside the library at 11:30 a.m.
A parent who was with his daughter at the event said yes New York Post that it’s a shame that something “extremely dangerous” like a bomb threat would affect children’s book reading.
“These are children, and children just want to hear stories… It’s a shame that someone simply destroyed it and threatened violence,” they told the newspaper.
Drag Story Hours have been a political target of conservative groups, and some states have even passed laws banning them.
In May, Montana became the first state to specifically ban anyone wearing shoes from reading to children in schools and libraries, seemingly targeting family-friendly Drag Story Hour events that have drawn criticism from far-right groups.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education