When bomb threats shut down nine schools last week in St. John and Schererville, school administrators and police quickly worked to assess the situation.
In the 17 years since the Columbine, Colo., school shooting on April 19, 1999, all schools have had to grapple with making sure they’re prepared in case a similar situation happens to them.
“It’s in the back of your mind,” Brad Best, director of security for the Merrillville Community School Corp., said. “You have to be prepared for it, definitely.”
For Lake Central School Corp. and several private schools, the bomb threats came in at night, when the schools were empty and officials didn’t have to worry about immediate danger to students. St. John Police Chief James Kveton said he was happy with how everyone worked together and how the situation unfolded, with school officials deciding to close three schools to give time for police to search them the next day.
“I think it worked like a well-oiled machine,” he said, thanking school officials and all the law enforcement departments that helped out.
Bomb threats are rare for St. John, Kveton said. He stressed that the threats that came in last week had no connection to anything, including the anniversary of the Columbine shootings.
“It was completely random,” he said.
He added that although police do see an uptick in student pranks at this time of year, they do not see anything at the level of a bomb threat. That echoes what Best said about Merrillville schools. He said it’s been at least several years since they’ve had a bomb threat called in.
The district is aware of the anniversary of the Columbine shooting he said and does pay attention, although they’re prepared for it at any time of year, Best said.
Best said that school employees do receive training, such as being taught to keep the caller on the phone as long as they can and to listen for any possible clues, whether it’s something about the caller’s voice or background noise. Employees then call police and school administration, who try to assess whether students need to be and can be evacuated from schools, he said.
“Our main concern is a safe school environment,” Best said.
Both Kveton and Hammond Lt. Rich Hoyda, spokesman for the Hammond Police Department, stressed, however, that each situation is different and the response depends on the circumstances.
“I don’t think there’s any textbook response,” Hoyda said.
He noted that the Indiana State Police provides a training program to schools on active shooter situations. The state also recently approved $20 million in 2013 for more school resource safety officers in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.
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Kveton noted that although he was happy with how police and school officials responded with these threats, they might not respond the same way in the future because it depends on the situation at the time.
He noted that although it turned out the threats made last week were not serious and that the suspect had no ability to carry them out, police still needed to treat them seriously until they were sure.
“You have to treat every situation like it’s reality,” he said.