Authorities respond to bomb threat at junior high

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Police and fire crews were called to Mountain Home Junior High School Thursday after a bomb threat called in by telephone was received at the school's office at approximately 4:15 p.m.

Almost all students and most of the teachers already had left for the day. Those that remained were immediately evacuated.

Police were in the process of checking the building. Typically, bomb-smelling dogs from the base's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team are called in to investigate such threats. It usually takes about two hours to conduct a thorough search of the building and declare it secure.

No bomb was found.

Police are asking that anyone with knowledge about who may have made the threat to contact them (587-2101). The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have been notified of the threat.

Besides being both a state and federal offense, the schools, police and fire departments have typically sought restitution from the persons found responsible. The costs associated with responding to such a threat usually run to several thousand dollars.

The school district typically receives threats several times a year, usually at the beginning of the school year and in the spring. This is the first threat this year.

This threat was unusual in that it was not called in at a time that would disrupt the school day and possibly result in students being released from class.

One district official, who asked not to be identified, noted in an offhand remark that "it may not be one of our brightest students."

The threat did disrupt a junior high volleyball game and a football game scheduled for later that day at the junior high. The resumed after the building was secured.

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  • Oh, no; not again.

    -- Posted by senior lady on Thu, Sep 4, 2008, at 7:00 PM
  • Yet more good use of our tax dollars. The kid that did it should go to jail and the parents should have to pay for the cost of little Jane or little Johnny's fun. I am sick and tired of footing the bills for some of these parents VERY ignorant kids. I hope they catch the little @#it and that the PA does her job and gets him convicted and makes the parents pay. What a waste!

    -- Posted by OpinionMissy on Thu, Sep 4, 2008, at 9:48 PM
  • I graduated in 1992 & we didn't have one single bomb thread/fake fire alarm from K-12. WTH is wrong with kids these days? I'm not *that* old...

    I agree; it's a waste of time & money. They should be made to do community service, at the very least! Maybe paint some lines on the roads, for starters!

    -- Posted by MommiezBoyz on Thu, Sep 4, 2008, at 10:27 PM
  • I couldn't agree more. What a huge waste of resources. One of these times there is going to be an actual emergency and all of our fire/police personnel are going to be at a bomb threat at the junior high again..... The bad thing about this one is that there was a volleyball match going on there and all of those teams that drove all the way here, plus their parents & fans had to be evacuated.

    -- Posted by mtnhomemom1 on Fri, Sep 5, 2008, at 9:36 AM
  • Who said it was a kid?

    -- Posted by Detrout on Sun, Sep 7, 2008, at 5:52 PM
  • What I want to know is....why can't they trace these callers? Isn't that rather easy for the PD to do these days?

    -- Posted by IdahoGirl on Mon, Sep 8, 2008, at 5:58 PM
  • What I want to know is....why can't they trace these callers? Isn't that rather easy for the PD to do these days?

    -- Posted by IdahoGirl on Mon, Sep 8, 2008, at 5:58 PM

    To trace a phone call the caller has to be on the phone for a certain amount of time, I don't remember the time needed but its like 10 seconds or so, plenty of time to place a threat.

    -- Posted by darkflame64 on Tue, Sep 9, 2008, at 12:46 AM
  • What about caller ID? EVen if they called from a pay phone, at least it can be narrowed down...

    -- Posted by sgt_elle on Sat, Sep 13, 2008, at 8:44 PM
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