One Phone Call Causes Mass Disruption

One phone call causes mass disruption

Countryside students and staff received a rude awakening during second block at approximately 9:45 a.m. on Thursday, December 6th, when what appeared to be a fire drill materialized into a bomb threat. The incident evolved into a mass evacuation as the school was vacated and Clearwater Police units accompanied by a canine bomb dog searched the building for explosives.

"I was at a county level meeting that morning. I got a phone call from my secretary that they had a threat here. Finally when I was able to call back she said we had a bomb threat. My SRO guided the situation because we kind of look to them for some guidance in this case," explained Principal Gary Schlereth. According to Schlereth they, (school administration) met and immediately acted upon the threat that had been called in to the school.

"First thing we do is get together and put our heads together," said Schlereth, "what do we want to do? Do you want to take the chance of disrupting the whole school day? Nine times out of ten we’re going to move to disrupt the day. The first and foremost [thing] is to provide a safe environment for both the students and faculty."

As the fire alarm rang students filed out of the building, most expecting a drill. While administrators proceeded to move the students to the football stadium, rumors began circling that a bomb existed on

School Resource Officer John Cavaliere was notified of the emergency by an urgent phone call from Assistant Principal Cynthia Saginario.

"She told me that they had just received a bomb threat and it would go off in fifteen minutes so I told them to pull the fire alarm. We don’t want to create panic. Get everybody out was my first action," said Officer Cavaliere, "I immediately got on the radio and notified dispatch. We had about six or seven units show up to help and assist me here."

The threat specified an explosive device in one of the school lockers.

"There are 1,800 lockers here. That takes a lot of time, so I called in for a bomb sniffing dog and they sniffed the lockers to see if there was a device in there," explained Cavaliere.

As students migrated about the football field the campus was thoroughly swept. It wasn’t until nearly two and a half hours later that the okay was given to reenter the school.

In neither Principal Schlereth’s nor Officer Cavaliere’s time at Countryside High School had a bomb threat ever existed. Out of the five staff members questioned, all agree that no more than two similar events have occurred. According to English I teacher, Ron Marn, the school has witnessed one such incident prior, but none of such magnitude. The unsuspecting contingency gave way for both praise and

Countryside High School students and faculty patiently await to reenter the school after the front office received a call threatening an explosion from one of the lockers on Thursday, December 6, 2007. After two and a half hours students and faculty were given the all-clear to proceed to fourth block.

criticism of standard procedure and actual execution of the emergency plan in a crisis situation.

"The school should inform us of exactly what’s going on," said junior Catherine Hartigan, "the teachers gave us different answers and it was very confusing."

"[There was] not enough supervision. Kids were jumping the fences," said senior Danielle Long.

"That's probably my biggest problem with it is that I didn't hear a lot if information about it. I didn't really know what happened or what went on. I didn't feel like the information was related to the parents," said parent Lisa Cohn.

"Not everything was done the way I would like it to be done. In a way it’s good that this happened to see how we can do it better," explained Officer Cavaliere.

Protocol requires that teachers evacuate with their classes and take roll to account for all their students. The

main goal is to vacate the premises and distance students and faculty from the imminent threat.

"They got everyone out of the school safely," said sophomore Craig Gordon.

In the upcoming weeks Countryside High School's Safety Committee headed by Assistant Principal, Chris Bates, comprised of teachers, administrators and SRO John Cavaliere will be reviewing the incident and undertaking the task of ensuring an updated, comprehensive emergency plan. Already suggestions for improvement are flowing in. According to Bates the committee has established three main goals they wish to pursue and present to Principal Schlereth to adopt as an official crisis plan. The goals include improved communication, a thorough outlined procedure as well as incorporating of Television Production teacher, Carl Zimmermann, as a communication liaison. Additional precautions include collectively organizing individual wings in the evacutation zone where teachers would remain with their classes in assigned positions.

"When the students go out we're going to have the stadium with assigned sections where wings A,B and C are going to be in this section of the stadium and if you're a teacher in those wings you're going to have to be with your students," explained Bates.

Students themselves have ideas on enhancing the existing evacuation procedures.

"Secure the area with police officers, get a phone tracker and more information," suggested senior Catie Munns.

"Maybe we could have a better system and try out the system and actually have bomb threat drills in case this ever happens again," said sophomore Shelby Wilson.

Dealing with such a mass number of students proved to be challenging. According to Principal Schlereth many aspects of the incident were handled well while others could have been improved.

"You’re not going to get one hundred percent compliance in anything you do. Overall, the behavior of the students and the faculty as far as the willingness to work and provide that safety net was there. They did an excellent job," he remarked.

Students are led to the football stadium to wait while the school is searched by police.