Students and staff evacuate building due to bomb threat
Students wait on the Cardinal Ritter football field for further instructions. This location was selected as a predesignated evacuation spot earlier in the school year.
May 3, 2018
In an announcement made on Wednesday, May 2nd by middle school principal Rebecca Irving, students were told to exit the building and make their way to the Cardinal Ritter football field [predesignated evacuation spot] down the street at approximately 12:20-12:30 pm. Students were to remain on the bleachers until further instructions were given.
“To make sure sure everyone was safe, we decided to evacuate the building and let the police go through the building to make sure nothing is going on. All of this was for safety precautions to make sure everybody was okay,” Gina Bell-Moore, high school principal said once students were seated on the bleachers.
After the building was cleared at about 1:55 pm, students and staff head back into the building. Students were called down for lunch, or early dismissal over the intercom.
According to school officials, a student overheard a peer make references to a bomb, then texted their parent about the comments made. The parent then put in a call to the St. Louis Police Department expressing her concern, but kept the identity of the student confidential. The police department contacted the school, to make administration aware of the situation and to take action. A team of about 40 police officers and 4 K-9 dogs inspected all floors of the building, including the Sun Theater.
At about 1:55 pm, the building was cleared and students were told to go back to their B6 class. At this time, students were also being called down to lunch and in some cases, for early dismissal.
At 2:45 pm, students were released to go to their B8 classes. At the end of the school day, administration met with staff to provide them with an account of what happened.
“School was disrupted for three hours, tests were put back a day. A lot of things were changed because of the somewhat anxiety of a joke, if that’s what it was. I have not found out from the police department if the child specifically said that they had heard someone say there was a bomb here, or if they heard some kids talking that there was a bomb somewhere… it could have been anything,” Fred Bachman, security, said.
Sara Irlbeck • May 3, 2018 at 12:29 pm
Thank you for your detailing the accounts of the bomb threat yesterday. I would like to add that no matter how or who alerted the authorities, it was the right thing to do. Because of the devastation so many have experienced by follow through of previous type threats in our recent history, any mention by any person stating a potential threat to any institution getting bombed should be reported. This is considered a terroristic threat and should be handled as such. Our GCAA students, teachers, staff and parents suffered because of some fear-mongering human! You did not receive a timely lunch, you were denied precious moments in class to learn, you were denied precious moments to rehearse for your spring guitar and jazz concert. You and your awesome teachers were denied your simple right to safety in your classroom! It is wrong and it is potentially deadly, even though it was a so called prank. It is my hope that you amazing, smart, critical thinking, and creative young human beings come up with a solution that puts a stop to this fear mongering behavior. We adults have not been able to figure this out to date!