MIDDLETOWN — Students and staff evacuated Middletown High School Tuesday after the school received an outside phone-call-hoax threatening there was a bomb on campus at 12:21 p.m. All were allowed back into the building after no explosive devises were found, authorities said.
The small school located on Big Canyon Road near downtown Middletown was closed off by firefighters and sheriff”s deputies while the 495-student body campus was emptied and students escorted by teachers to the schools” athletic fields.
According to early broadcast reports, the phone-call-hoax informed the school that a bomb was placed on campus in a locker.
Students were evacuated by about 12:50 p.m. and school was back in session at about 1:30 p.m., according to Vice Principal Kevin Mc Inerney.
“The bomb threat phone call came in and we immediately started evacuating and the sheriff”s [deputies] came in. We”re going to send them back to class,” Mc Inerney said as he exited the high school”s administrative offices. Mc Inerney appeared frazzled and said he was not authorized to further comment about the incident.
Principal Chris Heller also said he was not authorized to comment after being advised not to by the Lake County Sheriff”s Department (LCSD).
LCSD did not release details about the incident as of press time Tuesday, citing that the case remains open and in active investigation.
“I can confirm that we determined that the threat was a hoax of course,” Lake County Sheriff Rodney Mitchell said in a response via e-mail.
“However, making a bomb threat is still a crime and we are following up on some remaining investigative leads. As always, we appreciate the solid working relationship that we have with school officials and appreciate their follow through with us too.”
Parents were at the school picking up their children after receiving cell phone calls from them that a bomb threat had occurred. The school would not release information as to how many students were signed out for the day. In an effort to downplay the situation, an office receptionist said some of those students were signed out for reasons not related to the bomb threat.
16-year-old Maddie McBride stood outside with a group of friends at 1:30 p.m., back on campus after almost 45 minutes on the field. “I haven”t really heard much about the threat. I think it was someone messing around. I guess it”s not that big of a deal,” McBride said, adding she thought teachers “did a good job” maintaining calm during the evacuation.
As students were escorted out, many reported they thought it was a routine fire drill until teachers reluctantly told them they “heard there may have been a bomb threat.” Students said the event was not chaotic, but some were concerned that the call came in about 20 minutes before the evacuation occurred.
“It was 12:50 p.m. when we went out there. I can”t believe they had us sitting in the classroom all that time,” a friend of McBride”s said.
Lake County Office of Education Office Manager Jan Bailey said in her 28 years working in the county, this is the first time she has heard of a bomb threat. “But I couldn”t say for sure,” Bailey said.
Lake County Superintendent Dave Geck said the county office does not maintain records of bomb threats made to the school districts.
“Each school district has a response protocol. That”s what they use; it might be if there are more than one or two bomb threats made at a school, they might sit down with local law enforcement to make sure response strategies are in place. And they”ll try to trace phone calls,” Geck said.
He said he could recall phone bomb threats happening at various schools around the county “from time to time.”
Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Louise Nan said to her knowledge there have been no bomb threats made in her district and it has “not experienced a bomb threat” in the five years” she has been superintendent.
Middletown Unified School District Superintendent Korby Olson could not be reached for comment by press time Tuesday.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
