Woman Charged with Bomb Threat Against Boston Children’s Hospital
The bomb threat came shortly after a harassment campaign by far-right activists over the hospital’s transgender medical procedures.
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Boston, Massachusetts — Catherine Leavy, 37, has been charged with one count of explosive materials – willfully making a false bomb threat against Boston Children’s Hospital.
The bomb threat was phoned in to the hospital on August 30 and was traced to a T-Mobile account owned by Leavy, reports ABC News. She was arrested Thursday.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said that during the threatening call, the woman said, “There is a bomb on the way to the hospital, you better evacuate everybody, you sickos.” The threat prompted an immediate lockdown of Boston Children’s.
The bomb threat came on the heals of a spate of false claims and harassment by far-right activists about the hospital’s medical treatment of transgender adolescents and young adults.
Staff and clinicians at Boston Children’s said the harassment, which began in mid-August, included aggressive calls, emails, social media posts, and death threats.
It’s not clear if Leavy’s alleged threats against the hospital were related to the earlier harassment campaign.
About the Author
Robin Hattersley-Gray, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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