Jun 12, 2007
From message malfunction
Barlow evacuated after bomb scare
|
by MAGGIE CALDWELL
mcaldwell@thereddingpilot.com
Joel Barlow High School was temporarily evacuated Tuesday morning after receptionists received only part of an automated message about school closings in New Fairfield due to a bomb threat.
“The receptionist received a recorded message around 10:20 a.m., but the message was not transmitted in its entirety,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Allen Fossbender. “She was only able to pick up that there was a bomb threat ... Within five minutes we received another message at Samuel Staples Elementary School in Easton.”
At that point, Dr. Fossbender said that though the message did not appear to be specific to the districts’ schools, it was incomplete and it was unclear whether Barlow or Samuel Staples might be a target.
“Rather than take the risk, the decision was made to evacuate,” he said.
Redding Police Chief Douglas Fuchs was on the scene at Barlow, while Easton’s Chief Jack Solomon surveyed the situation at Samuel Staples.
“In consultation with the two police officials, a security check was performed in both schools,” said Barlow Principal Ross Calabro in a Listserve e-mail message to parents of Barlow students. “As the security checks were being performed, it was confirmed that school officials in New Fairfield did, indeed, send out an automated voice mail to the parents of their students pertaining to a bomb threat and the closing of all schools in the New Fairfield School District. The wording of the message and the timing of the message coincides with the wording of the recorded message and the time it was received at Samuel Staples and Joel Barlow.”
New Fairfield Superintendent Joseph Castagnola sent out a message alerting parents that schools would be closed early and the students dismissed after a bus driver reported that he had found a note on his bus that said simply, “Bomb today.”
“Every superintendent takes a situation like this very seriously,” said Dr. Castagnola. “We made the decision to first evacuate and then I called the buses in to dismiss the students.”
The automated phone system used the school to inform parents about school closings, early dismissals, delayed openings and other timely school events calls up to six emergency contact numbers listed by parents, including their work numbers.
The message was received at Barlow and Samuel Staples because a number of the employees at both schools have children enrolled in the New Fairfield school district. The partially transmitted message was also received at schools in Weston and Ridgefield, which didn’t evacuate.
The message was cut short, however, because of its length.
“We’re still learning about the system,” said Dr. Castagnola. “I think what happened in Redding was people received parts of the message and if you hear ‘bomb today,’ ‘evacuation’ and ‘we’re sending the kids home’ out of context, obviously it concerns everyone.”
“This would not have been a problem if the system did not malfunction, leaving us with an incomplete message,” said Dr. Fossbender who spoke with Dr. Castagnola to clear up the confusion when the high school was evacuated. “If the message had been complete, we could have easily made the decision to keep the students in the building because we would have understood clearly and confirmed with New Fairfield immediately and known there was no need for evacuation.”
“As far as we are concerned, there was no threat against any one of our schools,” said Chief Fuchs. “They were all secure. We were in communication with the schools and there was no need for police intervention... The threat had nothing to do with any other community outside of New Fairfield.”
Students at Joel Barlow were only evacuated for 20 minutes as administrators ran through the security protocol. Mr. Calabro said students returned to class without event.
“We thank our staff and students for their cooperation in efficiently exiting the building for what happily constituted nothing more than a drill,” he said.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
|
