Threats of violence during this school year have concerned students. With a former student charged with threats of mass violence and three bomb threats, one taking place just days after the potential mass violence story was revealed to the public, students wonder what’s to come. Repeated threats of violence affect the school’s atmosphere and student demeanor. Increasing anxiety, national issues that may have seemed distant have become more frequent this year and brought complex issues closer to home.
The most recent bomb threat targeting the school took place on Apr. 23. When the issue was discovered by security and administration, a Shelter in Place was called. Thirty-three minutes later, the Shelter in Place was lifted. Soon after, all students were sent a text via Remind confirming the existence of a bomb threat but revealing no details about the threat nor how the decision to keep students inside the building was made; Students expected to evacuate the school, as they had in the two similar situations earlier in the year.
Students had concerns with how the developments of handling these threats were communicated. Junior Ashi Stanislaus said, “I have mixed feelings on how the recent bomb threat was handled. On one hand, they were transparent and let us know what was happening, but we did not know why we were kept inside while the threat was in our building.”
Junior Hana Ghalib thinks the threats have influenced the area around the school. Ghalib said, “I think that the recent bomb threats are becoming too frequent and have alarmed not only the Wootton community but the area we live in. I think the most recent threat wasn’t handled well and should’ve resulted in an evacuation of the school.”
Students have been made uneasy by the bomb threat. Both Ghalib and Stanislaus said the threat made them feel “concerned.”
Principal Douglas Nelson said he values taking action over communication in an active emergency. In regards to perfect communication, Nelson said, “The response is more important. The most important thing is that we get out of the situation or away from the danger or it’s controlled as quickly as it can be.”
Nelson described the process administration and security took in handling the threat. “What I appreciated about the last bomb threat response is that I believe Shelter in Place is a better way to control the building and still evaluate whether there’s an actual credible threat or whether it’s a non credible threat. By going into Shelter in Place, we control the building and we could determine that it was a non credible threat. I think that it was less impactful to people overall,” Nelson said.
Students have thoughts about how these kinds of events should be handled in the future. Stanislaus said, “I don’t feel like Wootton is doing enough to protect us. I feel like we should have active shooter drills in place at our school and students should be prepared for what to do in those situations. Right now, we don’t actually know what to do.”
