Bomb Scare Reveals No Organized Strategy in Effect at High School
That?s the title I would give to the article if I were writing for a paper. It?s nice to know how disorganized the school is in the advent of a big emergency! Now that I am not as unnerved as I was earlier, I can tell the tale.
This was another day of driving. TB had physical therapy and Linda needed to go and apply for social service benefits. On the way home, we noticed that the road to the high school was blocked by a police car. We saw a helicopter hovering in the air. Maybe it was an accident? Maybe, I thought, the police are looking for someone.
At the time, it didn?t hit me that the school might be affected. I dropped Linda off and then we went home. I took Buddy out for ten minutes and then came in. I was wiped and needed to take a nap. The message light on the phone was blinking, though, and so we listened for our messages.
The message came from Heidi. She sounded excited and it wasn?t all that easy to make out what she was saying. I did hear, ?incident at school? and ?we?re okay? and ?I?ll tell you later.?
Well, I don?t need to explain to mothers out there that the worry button is switched on after hearing a message like that. I tried to call the main office and got an answering machine. I called the guidance department and got another answering machine. Then I called the attendance office ? and got another answering machine. This was giving me the creeps. I called the superintendent?s office and asked what was happening.
The secretary told me there?d been a bomb scare at the high school, that the kids were evacuated and were being put on the buses to be sent home. The police were continuing to search the building to see if they could find this bomb.
Some kid didn?t want to take a test, I thought. What a pain. I thanked the woman and hung up. I wasn?t especially worried. The kids were on their way home she?d told me ? except that an hour later, they still weren?t home. Kristin, though, got home on time thank God!
I called the superintendent?s office again and got the same secretary. She told me that all the kids were still being held at the high school. They were all being searched by the police and then they?d be put on buses and sent home. I groaned inwardly. There was no way of knowing when Billy and Heidi would be home. I couldn?t go to the high school, either, because the police blocked the road.
So I waited and worried. TB tried to help me feel better. I wasn?t scared so much as I just wanted them home so I could relax.
Billy called about a half hour after I spoke to the secretary for the second time. He was at the junior high, which was around the corner and up the street from the high school, and he was mightily disgusted. I heard him say that he?d gotten separated from Heidi at the high school by a surging crowd of kids. He said there were only two policemen to search the kids and instead of separating the kids by bus, they were going all willy-nilly and the kids had to be brought to the junior high only to get off and then get on their bus.
It sounded totally crazy. Anyway, TB and I decided I would go and get Billy. TB would keep an eye on Kristin and answer the phone if Heidi called. I had my cell phone on so that TB could call me if need be. Luckily, though, Heidi arrived on another bus and met up with Billy again. When I pulled up, they were both together.
On the way home, they told me what happened. Billy was totally contemptuous of the whole evacuation lack-of-planning and they both agreed the new principal is a ?total idiot?.
Around 11:45 this morning, a call came to the office. The caller claimed to have placed a bomb in the school and that it would go off. First thing the administrators did was to have all the classes locked. The principal announced everyone should look for ?unmarked packages?. No other explanation given.
About fifteen minutes later, the principal instructed the teachers to evacuate the students. Now, they all should have been following fire drill instructions but it doesn?t sound like everyone did. Heidi and a couple of her friends went out a fire door and set off an alarm.
In the midst of all this, the SWAT team arrived in full flak jacket regalia and they had bullhorns and ordered the kids to put their heads on their heads and walk to the soccer field. Heidi said she was terrified, wondering what on earth was happening.
No one explained anything to the kids ? officially. Heidi?s homeroom teacher told her privately that the police discovered the call to the office about the bomb had come from a pay phone inside the school.
The kids stood out there in the heat for hours into the afternoon. All of them had left all of their possessions inside (except Billy, who thought to bring his book). Nobody'd eaten lunch. They were not allowed to have water or to go to the bathroom. They were not allowed to use cell phones to call their parents.
Poor Heidi, who is allergic to all grasses, was breaking out and wheezing. What would have happened if she'd had a full blown asthma attack? She borrowed a friend?s phone and the friend shielded her while she quickly called and left a message on the answering machine.
The principal took the bullhorn and tried to give instructions about how the kids would be dismissed. They were supposed to have the kids line up according to which bus they rode but no one could hear the principal. Either she wasn?t speaking into the bullhorn or she wasn?t pressing the button down.
That?s when it began to get out of hand. The teachers and administrators called for the kids to form up in any order. The kids pushed and shoved as they serged together. The two cops searched two kids at a time and then put them onto a bus until it was filled. The driver then took the kids to the junior high and discharged them. When all the buses arrived at the junior high, the kids would find their assigned buses and get on.
What a zoo!
I was upset by the lack of an organized plan to evacuate the kids. Half of them went to the wrong field. Kids went out through the wrong doors. They were herded together like cattle in a pen. I don?t think any of that is safe ? where?s the supervision? What happens if something went wrong outside?
I am disgusted by the way the kids were treated (no news, no water, no bathroom) but this is another example of what a lack of planning will do. The other sad truth is that in a school, kids really don?t have civil rights. Administrators can search them, their lockers and their stuff. It?s not always a bad thing ? a lot of kids were busted on possession today.
Now that I?ve had time to think it all over, I?ve decided I will write a letter to the superintendent and will follow it up with a call. God forbid this should ever happen again but if it does, they need to do a better job than they did today!
Monday Madness:
1. What is your most artistic accomplishment?
I can think of two ? my stories and a latch hook rug I made using my own design. That was really cool and I had such a great time working on it. I got a copy of our family crest (the Irish side) and made a larger scale stencil. Then I worked on it lovingly throughout the weeks I had art. I was in highschool, maybe around 15 years old.
2. What is your favorite method of artistic expression?
The obvious answer is writing stories but I will say playing a musical piece on my guitar.
3. Name one form of art that you haven't yet tried but would like to.
Well, I am in a Georgia O?Keeffe frame of mind tonight. I would like to paint ? watercolors.