ETHS Bomb Threat Found Thursday Prompts Evacuation Friday

Evanston Township High School was evacuated at 1:22 p.m. Friday after a bomb threat was found written on a tissue Thursday, according Commander Tom Guenther of the Evanston Police Department.

All students and employees are safe, and no bomb has been found. The Cook County Bomb Squad and Evanston police and fire officials secured the building and continued to search the school through Friday evening.

On Thursday a student found a note in one of the boy's bathrooms threatening to blow up the school at 2:00 p.m. the next day, Guenther said. School security immediately took several actions, including reviewing camera footage and interviewing students, in their ongoing investigation.

According to Guenther, the note read, "I bomb skool at 2:00 tomorrow."  The note also included what Guenther said were inappropriate words, but he declined to comment on it further.

Despite the threat, school officials decided to keep ETHS open for classes Thursday and Friday morning.

Officials eventually decided to evacuate the school on Friday afternoon. Evanston police officers assisted the evacuation.   

"I do think it's quite serious considering what happened earlier this week near Nichols," said school employee Tina Penick, referring to the decapitated body found near Nichols Middle School Tuesday as a result of a pipe bomb explosion. "It was shocking to me that this was going on."

Alexis Lowe and Rashana Nicks, both ETHS sophomores, said school officials announced a "code red" over the loudspeakers shortly before 2:00 p.m. The students got down on the floor as teachers locked their classroom doors and turned off the lights.

"Then they announced that a bomb threat was found on a tissue, and we all had to leave the building," Nicks said. School was let out for the day, and all after-school activities were cancelled until further notice. Lowe and Nicks said they believed it was a false alarm and  were not scared by the threat.  

Penick said there was a bomb threat once before during her 10 years working at ETHS. "It was a false alarm," Penick said.