Students arrived at BASH on Friday morning, October 6^th, just like any other normal school day.  However, as the morning went on, an event unfolded which every parent fears.

Montgomery County 911 received a phone call at 9:45 a.m. by an unknown person with a disguised voice.  Police were unable to identify whether the caller was male or female.  The caller told 911 dispatch that there was a bomb in the school and a person with a gun.  Police quickly notified the high school about the threat.

The high school immediately began implementing their safety procedures which meant that the school went into a lockdown mode.  According to Dr. Harry Morgan, superintendent for Boyertown, “The school was in lockdown for approximately one hour while the threat analysis procedure was implemented, which means there is a ‘walk’ of the building to ascertain the validity of the threat.”  The threat was considered a low level threat which did not require evacuation.  It is not clear why no dogs were used to check the building when there was a bomb threat.

When the building’s walk through was completed, the students went about their day attending the rest of their classes.  Students were not given any substantial information about what had taken place but were given a letter, at the end of the day, to take home to parents.  The letter explained what happened and told parents that administration will continue to work with the police to maintain a safe environment for students and to further investigate the day’s incident.  If there would have been a credible threat, Dr. Morgan said that parents would have been notified in a number of ways including the school website, automated phone calls to home, and through media.

After speaking with students at the High School, there were some very disturbing comments made about the protocol that is to be followed by the faculty.  According to students, the faculty is to lock the doors, turn out the lights, and have the students remain in a corner of the room until given the all clear.  When the announcement to refer to their “green sheets” went through the school’s p.a. system, some teachers did not take the event seriously and kept on teaching even though it was not announced whether it was a drill or not.  At least one teacher admitted to students that he could not find the folder which contained the protocol that they were to follow.  Some teachers that did not follow protocol were reprimanded by the school, however, it is not clear how many teachers or what exactly was done other than they were told they should have followed the guidelines given to them.  At one point the school had decided to stop telling the teachers when there would be any kind of drill due to the teachers not taking the drills seriously.

So there are a few questions that go through one’s mind when sending our children off to school everyday.  When we kiss our kids goodbye in the morning and tell them that we love them and to have a good day, how safe are they in our schools?  Will the next threat be taken seriously?  Will guidelines that are in place for just such events be followed?  Or will we remain blind to the fact that school violence can be in ANY school?  Yes, even in a tight knit community such as Boyertown.

Posted by Bethanne Reinert on 09/07/06.