It’s past the point of annoying, Winfield Schools Superintendent Marvin Estes says, and if bogus bomb threats at the high school and middle school do not cease, it could come time to increase prevention efforts.
"If the hoaxes don’t quit, we may have to go to parents and say ? ‘we have to do something, we have to make a group decision,’" he says. "Obviously, this (repeated threats) is not a problem you want to have."
Estes is hopeful Winfield police will identify the person or people responsible for the threat phoned into the high school Wednesday. Last week’s incident marks at least the fourth bomb threat case police have investigated locally in less than two years.
Police have a "good investigation going," chief of police Jerry DeVore says, though he is reluctant to release too much information. Two officers are assigned to the case and have been following up on leads.
More information on the investigation could be made public later this week, DeVore says.
A conviction ? and hefty restitution to reimburse emergency personnel for time and expenses ? should discourage future incidents, Estes says. If that doesn’t work, other fixes might be necessary.
One obvious solution is to have students and teachers stay in the classroom when a threat is received. Police and school officials would do a search and secure the building while school remained in session.
"Right now I’d be hard pressed to say keep students in class when a threat comes in," he says. "But I know there are school district’s that do that. They don’t evacuate."
Estes worries how some parents would perceive such a move but he knows evacuations are disruptive to the learning process. Busy mothers and fathers have to scramble to make arrangements to pick up their kids and find something for them do when classes are canceled.
He’s concerned that some parents eventually could decide to pull their children out of the district
"At some point people will have to wonder why we can’t get this under control," Estes says.
School district and police officials have met following each bomb threat incident to discuss ways to improve evacuation procedures. Changes include the decision this week to disburse evacuated students to two locations, the recreation center in Winfield and Southwestern College ? to avoid becoming too predictable, officials said.
For the most part, police and school district officials are satisfied with the way last week’s evacuation played out. Chief DeVore says he placed an officer in charge who handled the situation at the high school while DeVore oversaw operations from a command center.
School officials also have corrected an issue with a message system that sends out information about evacuations. Estes says there was concern that some parents were not getting accurate information about students needing to return to class.
No matter the changes, the district will continue to allow students to leave following a threat if parents are uncomfortable.
"We’re not going to hogtie someone and force them back to class," Estes says.
Threat remedies the district is looking into include a way to reject phone calls that have no caller identification information available. A bomb threat phone call in August could not be traced back to the caller because the cell phone company did not have enough information, Estes says.
As for the missed classroom time, district is not too worried so far. But the state has requirements for the number of instructional hours students must have in a school year.
"We have some leeway right now," Estes says. "But if this were to keep happening and we have some snow days, we could have to make that up at the end of the year. The state sets those requirements and they are firm."
