Parents concerned about school safety after three recent bomb scares

By Bill Pearson
Staff Writer

    GUILFORD — Three recent bomb scares in SAD 4 schools have left students and parents alike in a frenzied state of mind. The last bomb threat occurred at 7 a.m. on April 9 when a custodian found a note at 7 a.m.  in the Piscataquis Community Secondary School boys’ bathroom. This was the district’s third bomb scare in 19 days.

    District officials cancelled school for grades 7-12 on April 9 after discovering the latest bomb threat. Later that night, about 45 residents attended the school board meeting seeking assurances from district officials that better safety precautions would be in place for future threats.
    Since March 21, the district’s secondary school has received two bomb threats and the elementary school had one. The Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department along with the Maine State Police have searched the schools each time following a threat, but no bombs were found.
    Even though no explosives were found, parents expressed concerns about their children’s mental and physical well-being. Several parents described the aftermath of evacuating the school’s after the first two bomb threats as being chaotic and leaving their children frightened to return to school.
    Faith Woodbury arrived at the elementary school on March 21 to pick up her grandchild. At 1:30 p.m., the nearby secondary school received a bomb threat. According to Woodbury, secondary school students arrived at 2:15 p.m. at the elementary school which was the designated security location.
    As the first wave of secondary students arrived at the elementary school, they didn’t seem to know where to go, according to Woodbury.
    “The first group of girls were petrified when they came through the door. They didn’t know where to go  or what to do,” Woodbury said. “There should’ve been someone of authority from the high school who came up ahead of those kids. And why did it take 45 minutes for the kids to get there? And why did they take the time to get here with their backpacks and coats?”
    Six others addressed the board about concerns over how school officials handled the three bomb scares. Woodbury was one of two former Connecticut residents who spoke about moving to the Guilford area in search of a quieter lifestyle. The other was Dawn Simon who has two children in the elementary school. She described the past month as being reminiscent of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in Newtown, Conn.
    “If we can’t feel safe here, we might as well move back to Connecticut,” Simon said. “What’s going to be done for our children’s future safety. What I’ve seen so far is concerning me. I have two children who won’t go to school because they are afraid.”   
    District officials assured the audience that they had been working on school safety matters long before the recent bomb scares and alleged gang-related activities. The district is required by state law to update their all-hazards plan each year. Superintendent Paul Stearns reported the district is prepared to handle situations like a bomb scare which threatens the school’s population.
    The district has also been working on ways recently to improve the atmosphere within the schools to decrease student bullying and suspected gang activity. The secondary school had a student assembly last month following an altercation between two eighth-grade male students in the hallway.
    The student who allegedly initiated the incident is no longer attending school in the district. During the assembly, students were told that gang activity, taunting or bullying would not be allowed in school.
    On March 15, Stearns announced that two other male secondary school students would no longer be attending district schools. Tranquility lasted for about week until March 21 when the first of the three bomb threats were made. The first was written with a marker on the secondary school’s boys bathroom wall. The second was received on April 5 with a handwritten paper note. The third was also a paper note discovered  at 7 a.m. on April 9 in the secondary school. All three threats were found in the boys’ bathrooms.
    Stearns sympathized with the parents’ concerns about keeping their children safe. He assured the public that the school system was working to ensure the safety of both students and staff.
    “Everything that I’ve heard from you tonight is the exact same thing that I feel as the caretaker of all the kids and staff. It’s also how I felt when my children attended school here,” Stearns said.
    One parent indicated that the bomb threats should be considered a terrorism act. Jamie Drinkwater didn’t view the recent threats as frivolous. He recalled a similar bomb threat made 15 years ago. In 1998, he was hired to track a troubled student who attempted to place a bomb in the high school gymnasium.
    The student constructed a bomb, but it detonated before he could place it in the school. Drinkwater wanted school officials to take the current situation more seriously by contacting the FBI’s Portland office to pursue the perpetrators responsible for the recent threats.