School Officials Talk Tough Against Recent Bomb Threats

The fourth school bomb threat in two weeks has school officials fed up and saying the threats are "unacceptable."

Police were called to another bomb threat at Warsaw Community High School this morning, the second this week. The call was received at WCHS at 7:14 a.m. today.

Students who were en route to the school on buses were taken to Edgewood Middle School to await the results of a police search.

Teachers and staff checked the classrooms for anything unusual, police said, but did not find any explosives.

The call was traced to a pay phone on the east side of Warsaw, police said.

Students were returned to the high school safely at 8:15 a.m. to begin classes.

Warsaw Community Schools administrators met this morning to review how the recent bomb threats to the high school and Lakeview Middle School were handled, and said they have been disruptive to teachers and students, as well as families and local police and fire departments.

"We're talking about stealing, in a sense, valuable instructional time," said Paul Crousore, Warsaw Community High School principal. "It's nearly impossible to come back to school and start instructional time right away."

"This can't be tolerated," said school superintendent Dr. Lee Harman. "There is a tremendous amount of disruption, and even safety concerns in transporting students."

Harman emphasized that the school corporation has policies in place to deal with crises, and each individual school also has its own procedures already set to deal with this kind of event.

"Our response varies depending on the circumstances," he said.

Pat Deck, principal of Lakeview Middle School, said the safety of the students is every school's No. 1 priority.

"If we're going to err, we're going to err on the side of being sure our students and staff are safe," she said.

"We have to use our best judgment in how we deal with this," Harman said. "We try to ensure student safety while minimizing the disruption" to the school day.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested Friday after allegedly calling in two bomb threats to Lakeview Middle School last week. Harman said the student has been suspended, pending expulsion.

While authorities are still investigating the high school threats, they said they may have some leads. "Sooner or later we're going to find this person," Harman said. "We're not going to give up until we find out."

Harman, Deck and Crousore said the schools support vigorous prosecuting of whoever makes such threats. "We're asking law enforcement and the judicial system to prosecute to the fullest extent possible," Harman said.

Kosciusko County Prosecutor David Kolbe said today that the crime falls under false informing, a Class D felony, and is subject to six months to three years in prison and fines up to $10,000.

Police are continuing the investigation of the high school bomb threats and would not release details on the incident.

Police did report the incident was similar to a bomb threat made Monday morning to the high school.

Though the probability of there actually being a bomb in any of the schools is low, Harman said, administrators will not take chances with students' safety.

"I think most people know the likelihood of there being a bomb is pretty low," he said, "but given the climate that we've got across the country today, you just never know."