Phony Bomb Threats at Schools Require Real Punishment.

In Central Illinois, we have been having a serious problem however that won’t go away until schools, parents and law officials determine how to handle this problem effectively. I’m talking about the wave of school bomb threats that are becoming the “in" thing for troubled students to fake.

Now I don’t want to pick on just my area of the country as a Google of, “phony bomb threats at schools’ popped up 402,000 hits. Of course, many of the hits are repeated stories and some are a classic case of keyword search going awry but a cursory look shows there have been thousands of such threats made across the country. Many are reported in middle or grade schools’, proving this isn’t just a problem committed by troubled, older teenagers.

Recently, our high school had to suspend classes for a day after a bomb threat scrawled on a girl’s bathroom mirror was found by students just before classes began. The school’s officials had no choice but to remove everyone from the building, call in police and tactical units and thoroughly check the entire school for explosives. There was no bomb of course but officials don’t have a choice in this situation. Imagine what would happen if just once, a school decided to ignore such a threat and it proved itself real and lives were lost. Not only would school administration find themselves facing countless lawsuits, but careers would be destroyed and some would demand serious criminal charges be made against them. And so even in a quiet little town like Lincoln, Illinois emergency measures must be instituted. The same measures we would take if a real terrorist actually was involved.

Our high school has security cameras and a school and police department that took this event seriously. Just a few weeks earlier our junior high school also had a similar situation and it was obvious this new fad for getting a day off of school had to be stopped in its tracks. Within a week, three young girls, ages 17 and 18, were arrested and charged with a class 3 felony of disorderly conduct. In Illinois that charge could bring a sentence of up to five years in prison or a juvenile detention facility. Bail for all three was set at $30,000 to send a signal to the remainder of the youths in our community that this fun thing to do has serious and possibly life altering ramifications.

Although I applaud our police and school administrators for taking this disruption of the lives of our children so seriously, there are still questions that need to be answered that cannot come in a court of law.

How should we handle and punish students who are just dumb or lack parental guidance that would instill in them that bomb threats aren’t really cool pranks to play. We also have to ask what will we do when the threats are found out to have been made by a 12-year-old or perhaps someone younger. Do we throw them in juvenile hall for several years? Do we just slap their hand and let them get away with it? What blame or liability should we include to the parent or parents of these minors for not making them understand the severity of these threats? And can we really blame adults for not getting through to a troubled youngster when the parents are trying as hard as they can to make their children responsible citizens.

What liability do we hold a troubled youth who has found his or her school a hell as they are bullied and find the threats as a means of clandestine revenge? How much then are such actions their fault, or do we include the bullies or the school in our punishment for not seeing and stopping such mental anguish to students. And finally we have to ask if suspensions really hold any threat since many of these troubled students don’t care if they go to school or not?

A great many questions need to be asked and answered on the issue of school bomb threats. Until they are, schools across this country will continue to have lost days of education for all the good kids who just want to learn. And someday a threat will not be an idle boast and after the news spends hours drilling the story into the minds of other students; Google will have another 402,000 hits reporting bomb threats in schools.