Correct way to handle.

[Crimijuswoman]

Here's the situation: Yesterday at my son's high school they recieved a bomb threat on the school's answering service around 7:10 in the morning. They put the school into lockdown. Bomb squad with the dogs were called in. No bomb or explosive devices were found. Keep in mind I am merely a Criminal Justice student, however I found this to be odd. No phone calls were made after to the parents. Instead we recieved a typed letter from the principal stating that they had to continue on and they couldn't stop school every time they recieved a threat of this nature. In all the horrific things that have been happening in schools lately I felt this was a cold response. As I was reading this letter all I could think was "what if", scary scary sitution. What is everyone's thought regarding the handling of this.
Thanks!

[greenlead]

What good would calling the parents have done?

[txinvestigator1]

How many students attend this school?

[Ispbear]

What good would calling the parents have done?

It would have caused a lot of parents to rush down to the school making outrageous demands and turning the whole situation into chaos. Needless to say giving the worthless youth that did not want to get out of bed that morning and go to school even more to laugh about.
Let's think, at any of the school shootings, terrorist attacks, etc... Did those kids or people call the school ahead of time and say, I'm going to come in and shoot the school up? Nope, threats are just that threats. The ones that are going to do it won't say a thing to people they don't trust. They don't want a fight, they just want victims.

[Roger Dat]

You were notified by the school by letter, your son was never in danger given the police response. The school did as they schould.

[CelicaGuy]

Like others have said, calling the parents would just made a big crowd by the school, so if there truely was a bomb, then there could be more people injured. If they didn't feel it nessacary to evacuate the school then it wasn't. We can do "what if's" all day, what if you were already at the school, what if......what if......what if!

[ChesCopPodz]

Emptying the school and cancelling classes just opens the door for someone to call in every day

[Crimijuswoman]

All are great points, that I didn't think about, I was just looking at it from a scared Mom's point.

[Hockey9019]

You know what I don't get, and maybe its because I'm not a parent, but why do parents flock to the school when something so small happens. Or even if there is a threat, why do they? I'm not going to say I would ever do this, but if I was an attacker, I would do that, broadcast it, all the parents flock to the school, then attack. (Kind of like Die Hard 2 ;))


Just never really understood that. The parent won't rush in there and save their kid, is that what they're thinking? :confused:

My HS really never had a problem with this for some reason. We had over 6500+ students on a 400+ acre campus. 4 buildings, and never had the problem. Only thing I remember, is the physics teacher who was seen moving his bb gun for his class from the old classroom to the new one in the new building. And the ERT showed up and that was about all the excitement I remember...

Anywya, I think the letter is good enough personally. I know several schools, got so many ones, and the parents freaked out enough, if a call came in, all the students go sit out in the middle of a football field. Oh and most still make you do whatever work you were going to do anyway. I know our school had the policy in place. Rain or shine. Oh well

[Coastie 585]

Bomb threats happen alot.

I had one in middle school, and two in high school. Think about it like this. What was the last time you have heard about a school, being blown up?

The school did good in keeping the situation under control.

[sfb92]

My school had a bomb threat either a month or two months ago. There was something written on a bathroom stall. All that happened was the school made an announcement over the loudspeaker saying a bomb threat was made, letters were given to all students to take home, and the school/police brought in the county to do a sweep with the dogs and there was an extra cop or two at the school he next day.

I'd be willing to bet it was just a kid who wanted out of class, or for school to be canceled. Whenever you hear about a bomb threat in the news, it seems like it's always just people trying to get out of something. Crimijuswoman it sounds like your son's school did a good job.

I think schools are pretty good at handling these threats by calling in the police and not just panicking and canceling school.

Coastie brought up a good point about schools blowing up. The only school that I know of that was ever bombed/blown up in the U.S. happened over 80 years ago;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster

A kid in one of my classes made a good point too. He basically said if some one was actually going to blow up the school would they really let the school know?

[Samuel]

You know what I don't get, and maybe its because I'm not a parent, but why do parents flock to the school when something so small happens. Or even if there is a threat, why do they? I'm not going to say I would ever do this, but if I was an attacker, I would do that, broadcast it, all the parents flock to the school, then attack. (Kind of like Die Hard 2 ;))

Just never really understood that. The parent won't rush in there and save their kid, is that what they're thinking? :confused:

When you become a parent, my guess is you will probably sympathize more with their "flock to" reaction. If crap was hitting the fan where my kids go to school, my gut inclination would be to get there too - to get my kids out of the danger zone and/or to put an end or help put an end to the threat... maybe even put a drive by beating down on the POS(s) involved... :p

[Hockey9019]

When you become a parent, my guess is you will probably sympathize more with their "flock to" reaction. If crap was hitting the fan where my kids go to school, my gut inclination would be to get there too - to get my kids out of the danger zone and/or to put an end or help put an end to the threat... maybe even put a drive by beating down on the POS(s) involved... :p

Well :p



But would most parents do what you would do, or would they just scream and hug their kids :p ;)

[Crimijuswoman]

My son came home the next day and said that it was in fact a student that had made the phone call from a phone booth. Imagine that. I suppose the school did handle it correctly. I guess as parents we automatically go into this protect mode, no matter what. The mere idea that someone would hurt my kids, I can not even put into words. My feelings though is where was this kids parents, did they not notice he was gone? Although I know parents aren't perfect and there are those kids that are hard to handle. I make it a point to know everything, even though they may roll their eyes and tell me I am nosey, some day they will realize I do what I do because I love them. Okay, enough said, thanks for everyones input and showing me to look beyond, you guys are so smart!

[CelicaGuy]

My son came home the next day and said that it was in fact a student that had made the phone call from a phone booth. Imagine that. I suppose the school did handle it correctly. I guess as parents we automatically go into this protect mode, no matter what. The mere idea that someone would hurt my kids, I can not even put into words. My feelings though is where was this kids parents, did they not notice he was gone? Although I know parents aren't perfect and there are those kids that are hard to handle. I make it a point to know everything, even though they may roll their eyes and tell me I am nosey, some day they will realize I do what I do because I love them. Okay, enough said, thanks for everyones input and showing me to look beyond, you guys are so smart!

Don't stroke their EGO to hard, they might just explode!!!!!!:D:rolleyes: