For some reason the county I live in has a higher than average number of morons. The kind that think it is funny to call in bomb threats.
Today I got a phone call, computer generated voicemail and email telling me my daughter’s high school was on lockdown due to a “credible” bomb threat. I don’t know how they deem it credible or not, but anyway.
You all know that because we had a number of these incidents last year, although not at my kids actual schools, my husband and I have been doing a lot of research into bomb threats, active shooters and how our district deals with them. Mostly we have not had a lot of cooperation, but today I got to find our first hand how they deal.
First I will say all is fine and the threat is over. Children are on their way home now. I was not scared when I got the message because in my research from many sources to include Greg Ellifritz I have learned that people who intend to bomb a school don’t call it in first. I was 99.9% sure it was a hoax, but when your kid is not with you and there is even the slightest chance they are in danger and the last time your kid was in danger you didn’t do the right thing, it adds a certain amount of uncomfortableness. The last 3 hours have not been pleasant for me, but I was calm.
A few minutes ago I received a text from my daughter that said she is fine and on her way home and I got this from the county…
Dear Parents/Guardians:
This communication is being sent as a follow up to the phone/email message you received earlier today. At approximately 11:30 a.m., a student received a text message from an individual off school grounds that indicated a bomb was at the school. Upon notification by the student, Administration immediately contacted the Sheriff’s Office who advised that the school go into lockdown. The Sheriff’s Office called in bomb dogs to search the grounds. Once the outside was deemed safe by the Sheriff’s Office, students were evacuated to the football stadium and an extensive search of the school building was conducted by the Sheriff’s Office with the assistance of bomb dogs. During the entire situation, the priority of Administration was to ensure the safety of our students. While the students were outside, water was provided to the students. Students were provided an opportunity to have something to eat and drink before getting on the bus or leaving.
Nothing was discovered by the Sheriff’s Office and the all-clear was given to Administration for staff and students to return to the building. Please plan to report to school tomorrow as scheduled.
Our counselor is available to support students as needed. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at
Here is what I like: I was first notified about 15 minutes after the lockdown went into effect and then again about an hour later with an update. The student reported the threat right away to the right people, those people took immediate action. It appears they secured all the children and then checked the outside area of the school. I like that a lot because Greg posted this…
There has never been a bomb threat in an American school that preceded an explosion. Every single threat in the history of American education has been a false alarm. If the person making the threat really wanted to harm the kids, he wouldn’t call before detonating the device.
That’s why I worry about mandatory evacuation policies. It’s easier to place a real bomb in the evacuation area outside than it is to hide in a school. Mandatory evacuation during bomb threats actually does nothing to protect the children, it only makes them easier to be shot or blown up outside. Many schools don’t understand the issue and in the quest to keep students “safe” actually expose them to more danger.
Once they deemed the area safe they then had the children taken to that cleared spot and continued to care for them. They took their time and did a thorough investigation of the school. Even after the all clear the students did not go back to school they were sent home.
I think this town might actually have a handle on this.
What I didn’t like: Feeling totally helpless and scared while my daughter was not in my care. Now that I know she is fine I am a bit shaky and teary eyed and I really can not wait to get my hands on her.
**Edit** Forgot to link Greg Ellifritz and since others have asked I will also include other resources we used to prepare ourselves and children for life away from us. these are also the resources we gave to the administration folks for our county schools.
A Parent’s Guide To Surviving A School Shooting
How To Survive A School Shooting
The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises
We read a ton more and also spoke with teachers, principals, the police, kids, and other parents to try to get an understanding of what was being done here and what if anything did the others in our community know about what the plan was/is for our kids and their schools are.
As a mother of two daughters, I can imagine how you must feel right now. These situations are getting alarmingly more frequent. People can be such fools to think this is funny, or a prank that’s acceptable. I’m so glad your children are alright!
They are very common here and I am sick of them…lol
Glad everyone is safe.
Me too.
1) Glad it turned out for the best.
2) This appears to have been handled appropriately. So serious props to the district on that one.
On a side note I’m still pissed at my high school, for numerous things, but there was a serious incident while in school. There was no threat and there was a suspicious device found. How serious was it, guys in the bomb suits showed up. They however locked us up… in the building with the device.
Please note my high school was by no means small, approximately 2500-3000 students depending on the year. Campus consisted of 4 independent separate areas separated by covered paths. You could actually relocate from one side to the other by multiple paths without being visible from outside the campus.
I stared at my instructor and said, “really, keep the kids next to the potential ordnance?” The argument was that there could be someone waiting to shoot as kids exited the school. At which point I pointed out that we could relocate those around the suspicious device to a different part of the campus that currently doesn’t contain explosives. I was instructed to be quiet… I got up, left the room, got to the other side of campus and chilled out with my Electronics instructor. I had a few administrators try to stop me, all stopped short of physically touching me. It’s a shame because that would have been a dream come true. The cops didn’t mind me relocating to a different area. One started to stop me and I just said, “I’m heading to safer ground across campus.” He left me alone after that.
Low and behold it was some old homemade weights with lead shot and black sand that looked like gun powder. I wasn’t enthused at being forcibly confined in proximity to an explosive.
Sorry, I don’t trust most walls to stop metal shrapnel, especially when it is basically on the floor above you.
This was also the same school that forcibly blocked the exit to the parking lot after a natural disaster. That is a different story though for another time. So is the story of September 11th and banning the new broadcasts from the classrooms, even during breaks. Again, another time. Have I mentioned I viewed public school as a prison?
So yeah, +1 to your daughter’s school for handling things in a professional reasonable manner.
I know your so right. Schools seem to be a place of constant poor decision making, but our schools seem to be trying.
Our daughter has our promission to defy authority if she feels her safty is at risk. We have talked about different scenarios where it might be appropriate to leave etc. I am not going to be there, so it’s up to her to make the choice to listen or not. I don’t like leaving her in the hands of others, but so far both my child and the school have done well. Praying we don’t have to test the system again.
Look forward to the other stories you have to tell:)
P.S. glad you survived school!
After you get your hands on your kid, I’d love to see you get your hands on whoever sent that text.
I guess the old days of calling the smoke shop and asking “Do you have PRINCE ALBERT in a can?” are over.
Oh, I would love to have a chat with this person and yes the times they are a changing…ugh
Well done to the LEOs and techs. They did the right thing with the perimeter check then relo the students. There IS a logic to doing it right.
Exactly!!
Shaky and teary eyed?
Hard to believe.
Sorry about your weekend getting canx’d too. Give all your kids extra hugs tonight.
Lol, I know it is hard to believe:)
The weekend was a bummer, but there will be other opportunities….hopefully soon!
Good job to the school. Now love your girl Mama.
We had a lockdown and I was never even notified. Bug now has her cell always. She also has her brush from pretty dangerous for when she is out and about. She needs some sort of weapon to help equalize things and being a kid limited the options. Now if she is attacked she pulls the brush and has a big spike to do some damadge.
Nice! Way to equipe her. M had a cell phone, but lost it on a trip with friends. She was water skiing and forgot to remove it from her vest. It ended up on the bottom of the lake. She was suppose to work to earn money for a new one, but we decided she needs it now and can pay us later.
I’m very glad that your daughter is okay. I’m also glad that the school is handling things in a well organized and appropriate manner. It’s frustrating that the idiot is obviously getting a kick out of this. Hopefully they’ll be able to track them down through the text message and put an end to this mess.
That is my hope. Really want him/her to be caught.
Probably find out it was a kid in school who sent the text, just to get out of a day of classes. Calling in a bomb threat should be a federal offense, no matter the age.
Probably right. Kids do stupid things and if it’s just a kid that made a dumb mistake fine we don’t need to skin him/her, but chances are its a kid that has done this kind of thing before and I would like to put an end to all the fun.
I’m glad to hear your daughter along with all the other kids in this school are all okay. Give your daughter a hug and breathe!!!!
It’s nice to know the school followed protocol. Try to have a less stressful evening 🙂
Thanks! Our evening was less stressful. I was so happy to just watch my kids being kids and listening to the younger ones tell us about their first day. I am super huggy with them, so they didn’t even notice my need to be handsy:)
So glad to hear everyone is safe. Also, so glad to hear that there wasn’t in fact a bomb. My recent ride-along with one of our local law enforcement agencies looms large in my mind right now – it isn’t hard, as we discovered firsthand that night, for stupid kids to make fairly dangerous bombs from ordinary easily obtained materials. Low-tech is still dangerous, as you know.
It sounds like the school handled things fairly well, though.
Yep, that is the scary part. So far they have all been false alarms, but I know how easy it would be if someone really wanted to cause a problem. It’s why even though I am aware the odds were against it being a real threat, I was still concerned.
omg! I am sitting here catching up on all your post, and knowing that is every parents worse nightmare. How dang scary. But good Lord does Greg make a good point about bomb placement-never thought of that..but he is right.