Amy Chen ’19: Seven schools in Delaware were recently evacuated after they received computer-generated phone calls issuing bomb threats and a possible mass shooting, on January 11, 2016. Eleven schools in New Jersey received similar computer-generated threats eight days later on January 19 and acted similarly. Although these threats were traced back to Bakersfield, California and fortunately never went any further, they still brought attention to the issue of school safety.
Photo Permission of delawareonline.com
Despite the similarity of the threats issued, the methods schools used in dealing with these situations varied. According to the news source PIX11, some schools chose to evacuate their students off-site while others decided to initiate a lockdown. One school in particular, Teaneck High School in New Jersey, confiscated students’ backpacks and searched through them in the town’s community center before returning them to the students after nothing suspicious was discovered. However, the one thing that every school did was contact the local police department to seek further assistance. As stated by CBS New York, “Police sent plainclothes detectives as well as K-9 units through the school district as a precautionary measure.” These searches, described by Delaware Online, lasted anywhere from forty-five minutes to three hours, after which students were eventually led back into the school.
Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Head of the Upper School, explained EA’s plan of action for similar situations, nothing that the administration would “consider the matter a potential crisis situation that would interrupt the normal operation of the school. The Head of School would be contacted and informed, and Emergency 911 would be called as well as the Director of Safety and Director of Facilities.” EA would then undergo the process of evacuation, where “an announcement would be made for the students and staff to evacuate the buildings.” Following the announcement would be a “police-directed plan, which would likely include a thorough inspection of every area within the buildings,” in which “police may choose to use K-9 units to complete a thorough search of the premises.”
Dinkins also mentioned that he would want to make sure everyone was informed about what was happening if such a situation arose. This would be done through a “crisis communication leadership team” that would “disseminate information to staff, parents, community, and media as quickly and efficiently as possible.” This crisis communication leadership team would also announce, with the Newtown Township Police Department’s approval, when the school would be safe to return to.
Joe Shanahan, Director of Campus Safety, stated “We have protocols for handling such threats. There are even printed-out emergency response guides that you see around the buildings; they’re the red books you see on the walls. However, they’re really just meant to be a basic guideline.” He continued, saying, “Each one [incident] is unique in-and-of itself so our response would depend on the nature of the threat. The decision is also not completely up to me. I’m part of the Emergency Response Team and we would have to meet up and come to a decision before doing anything.”
Shanahan frequently referred to the involvement of the police, saying, “We would notify the police immediately, get them on campus, and together determine what the next course of action is. Which may be to bring K-9 units in here or do a methodical runthrough of each building.”
He also mentioned a course of action not pointed out before. “One thing different about EA compared to all these other schools that receive threats is that they’re only one building. We are multiple buildings. Why risk bringing kids out of a building into a potential blast zone? In a vague scenario where the caller does not give us any additional information other than there is a bomb, we might consider initiating a lockdown.”
Shanahan concluded by saying, “At a school like EA, our number one concern is the safety of the students, the faculty, and the staff.”