Bomb threat dispelled after temporary school closing, investigation under way
Photo by Alanna Sparks
September 10, 2014
Parents on one line, peers on the other. Anxious students spread the message of an unexpected school closing while cramming the parking lot of the First English Lutheran Church off Vernier Ave on the morning of Tuesday, Sept 9. Police barricaded all entrances to North before school in response to a reported bomb threat.
A tweet, sent out at 10:46 p.m. the previous night by a North senior, indicated that he placed a bomb in the school.
The Grosse Pointe Woods Public Safety Department received a call at 7 a.m. from the North administration offices about the threat and immediately initiated a school-wide evacuation.
“We found out (yesterday) morning, and (Principal Kate) Murray woke up, and there’s a text there that was forwarded to her, and she discovered that there was a threat, a bomb threat, in the school,” Assistant Principal Tom Beach said. “At that point, we immediately contact the police, and the decisions at that point really almost come out of our hands because the police then take over.”
“We aided the police in giving them information based on the tweet that we had. The police immediately closed the school, so within 20 minutes the place is blocked, people are being sent away, people who are already in the building are outside of the building. So, it happened very quick,” Beach said.
The suspect was taken into custody at his home at 7:54 a.m, and the threat was “deemed to be a hoax and the building was determined to be safe … at 8:05 a.m.,” a Grosse Pointe Woods Department of Public Safety Immediate Media Release said. Students and staff were then permitted to re-enter the building and resume classes.
Legal and academic consequences for the suspect are still pending.
“I’m very disappointed, but I also know that it’s one individual. So, you had one individual who made a very bad decision,” Beach said. “You’re going to have a few individuals who think ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ but on the other side, they realize that it’s not good for their school, it’s not good for their education, it’s not good for the community.”
