Averting a School Crisis by Cody M. Santiago

Author:Cody M. Santiago
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781475843118
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2018-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

BOMB THREATS

Bomb threats made to a school can be a serious interruption to your operation. Threats can be made for a variety of reasons, but they are mainly intended for disruption. Callers may be students that want to get out of school early, someone who genuinely dislikes a student, staff member, or the district as a whole, or the threat could be legitimate. Every threat should be taken seriously.

In the spring semester of 2012, Adam Busby, the self-proclaimed leader of the Scottish National Liberation Army, e-mailed the University of Pittsburgh numerous times with bomb threats (Ove, 2015). In a single day, seventeen bomb threats were made. Over the course of the semester, 136 evacuations of on-campus facilities had occurred. By the end of the semester, university leadership had to restructure final exams and advise students of new final exam procedures.

One could only imagine how much disruption the aforementioned incident would cause. Students had to be evacuated many times during cold and inclement weather. Those evacuations disrupted classes, final exams, and sleep patterns. They also created a sense of fear. With every threat came the question of whether the threat was credible or plausible. According to Pitt News (2012), an independent student newspaper, during final exams, the university advised students that they were to remain in place during final exams unless otherwise told to evacuate. This was a judgment call that had to be made during a time when academic integrity must be sustained.

Though bomb threats are not necessarily preventable, mitigating from worsening situations after these threats is crucial. Knowing how to respond to a bomb threat and what to be prepared for will ultimately reduce the potential for confusion and furthering disruptions.

Anyone who answers a phone at your district or who greets visitors should be trained in your bomb threat protocols. Essentially, any administrative faculty and all leadership should be prepared to know what to do when a threat is made in any fashion of communication. A great start in bomb threat preparedness is to make a Bomb Threat Checklist, such as the one in figure 6.1.

This form can be as generic or complex as your school decides. It is your form, so make it so that your staff will be comfortable with it. Considering the potential frantic scenario that a bomb threat causes, it is best to keep it simple and readily accessible. Readily accessible does not mean tucked away in a file drawer. Readily accessible means it should be on your desk or at an arm’s length away from your phone. The call-taker should not have to think about where their checklist is. It should be out in the open or on ready-to-go in a top drawer.

Bomb threat responses are at the discretion of each school. Whether your school decides to evacuate for every threat or to lockdown, know what the plan is. Having said that, consider the following scenario.

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