Response to bomb threat effective, say school, police
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Police and school officials say they effectively handled a recent bomb threat at Port Aransas High School, quickly arresting a suspect, notifying parents and repeatedly searching the school.

Parents of high school students contacted by the South Jetty also seemed to be satisfied with the school district's handling of the matter.

"I thought the school, the administration and city officials, police - they did a really good job," said Rob Phillips, who has two daughters attending PAHS. "They got the word out, sent letters home and had officers there the next day at school. … It's always concerning when you hear something like this, but overall, I thought they did a real good job."

On Thursday morning, April 19, police arrested a PAHS student for allegedly writing a note threatening to detonate a bomb at the school. Police identified him only as a boy under 17 years old.

A custodian found the note the previous day on the floor of a janitorial supply room, said Travis Longanecker, principal of PAHS.

Longanecker said the unsigned note read: "I'm going to blow up the high school Friday." That day - Friday, April 20 - was the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher in Colorado.

The bomb threat also roughly coincided with the anniversaries of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City and the burning of the Branch Davidian Ranch near Waco in 1993. In addition, a student shot to death 32 people and wounded 29 on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg Virginia on Monday, April 16.

Longanecker said he believed the student was not motivated by any of those events specifically but by a conglomeration of all of them. "I do believe this (PAHS bomb threat) was a copy-cat style threat to disrupt school," he said.

Nationwide, hundreds of schools received bomb threats in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.

In Port Aransas, the bomb threat came during the week when students were taking Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests, or TAKS - state-mandated testing. That too may have been a motivation for the threat, Longanecker said. In fact, he said, the note was written on the back of a TAKS schedule.

Longanecker said he believes the student slipped the note under the door to the janitorial supply room - located in an alcove that doesn't see heavy foot traffic - in order to make sure the note was found but also to avoid getting caught.

A custodian found the note just after classes were out for the day on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 18.

"Immediately, we had suspects in mind," Longanecker said. "I'll just say there was some student scuttlebutt." In addition, writing teachers found "uncanny" resemblances between the handwriting on the note and the handwriting of a certain student, Longanecker said.

After being questioned by school officials, the student admitted he wrote the note, according to Billy Wiggins, superintendent of PAISD.

"He said it was a joke and didn't mean it," Wiggins said. "But, you know, you have to take these things seriously in today's world."

Longanecker temporarily suspended the student from school. He later had the student put in DAEP - District Alternative Education Placement.

Students in DAEP get their instruction in one classroom away from the PAHS campus and remain separated from the rest of the student body throughout the day.

The student accused of writing the note will have his case reviewed by school officials after 45 school days to determine whether he should be allowed back in regular classes, Longanecker said. Those 45 days will extend into the next school year. If he is not put back in regular classes after 45 days, he will remain in DAEP for another 15 school days, Longanecker said.

After the note was found Wednesday afternoon, a police officer and school employees searched the high school for a bomb. School employees searched again early Thursday morning.

At 6 a.m. Friday, police, firfi.ghters and school employees performed a sweep through the high school to make sure there were no explosives in the school.

"We searched through every nook and cranny of the school," Longanecker said. That meant going through every locker and desk, pulling books off the library shelves and more, he said.

All students were required to enter school that morning through one door, and every fifth student's backpack was searched as they entered school.

Longanecker said he believes the student never intended to actually plant a bomb but to disrupt school. Still, the principal was saddened by the turn of events.

"Emotionally, it has been trying," he said. "We feel like we have this nice little island community, and yet violence can happen anywhere - or there is a threat of violence everywhere."

At 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the entire PAHS student body was called to an assembly in the gym, where students were informed about the threat and given notification letters to take home to their parents. Longanecker also took questions from students.

Longanecker warned "potential copy cats" during the assembly that student freedoms such as off-campus lunches could be curtailed for the entire student body if a similar incident happens again.

Port Aransas Police Chief Sam Russell said he was "very pleased" with how school and police reacted to the threat.

Port Aransas police met with school officials earlier this school year and made plans for how they would handle situations like bomb threats, Russell said.

Similarly, drills designed to prepare students and employees for how they should react if an intruder starts causing trouble in a school building have been held.

The boy who was arrested later was released, but Russell said some sort of charge - probably a misdemeanor - will be filed. At press time, the investigation still was in progress.

Longanecker said all but one of the comments he received were suppportive of how the incident was handled.