SYRACUSE — The evacuation of an LDS Seminary here on Tuesday because of a suspicious envelope turned out to be a false alarm, but police say they’d rather be too cautious than jeopardize the lives of students and seminary faculty.

Police were called to the LDS Seminary next to Syracuse Junior High School just after 9 a.m., when a seminary employee reported the padded, manila envelope to police. The envelope had a suspicious address label, had a fictitious post office box number as the return address, and had been mailed from out-of-state.

It contained nothing but a rambling letter, according to Syracuse Police Lt. Tracy Jensen.

But police, seminary and school district administrators decided to evacuate the seminary of 57 students in two classes at the time and put the junior high on perimeter lockdown — that is, no students were allowed outside the school, except for some whose parents picked them up. Classes at the junior high were held according to schedule.

Students evacuated from the seminary were taken into the school where they had set up a study hall in the cafeteria, according to School District spokesperson Chris Williams. Seminary classes scheduled for the rest of the school day were handled in the same way.

Williams said the church decided to close the seminary as they waited for test results on the envelope. And Syracuse Junior High Principal Robin Bowden sent out an all-call voice message to parents explaining the situation,Williams said.

The police and school district officials agree the actions taken were necessary.

“In light of (California’s) Proposition 8 vote and what happened at the LDS temples because of it, we’d rather err on the side of caution,” Jensen said on Wednesday.

Williams agreed saying, “In this day and age it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

California voters passed Proposition 8, on Nov. 4 which banned gay marriages. LDS Church members worked to get the proposition passed. Since the election, temples belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles have received envelopes containing a white powder.

In light of those incidents, Jensen said LDS Church administrators put out a memo asking employees at any of its facilities to be on guard. “(The California vote) has affected us here in Utah,” he said.

While the envelope delivered to the seminary building on Tuesday contained only a letter, a non-threatening one at that, U.S. Postal inspectors and the hazmat crew from the South Davis Metro Fire Agency were called to ensure the safety of students and employees. Jensen said.

mwilliams@davisclipper.com