Waltham Parents Protest Bomb Scares, Want Answers

WALTHAM, MA — This month there have been more than 60 bomb threats reported around the city of Waltham, mostly at schools. As parents and families get alert after alert from the schools letting them know about soft lock downs and building sweeps, parents have become increasingly nervous and want to know when this will stop. They also want to be assured that their children are safe.

Although the Superintendent of Schools, the mayor and the Waltham Police Department came out with a joint statement outlining some of the steps they've taken so far, and inviting residents to a community meeting in mid October, parents are still frustrated to the point of protest.

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Ashley Hessen organized a protest in front of city hall to bring attention to the issue and to get answers.

"I want to get people to rally together and come together as one to keep our kids safe that's the point," she told Patch Friday night before the rally. She created a Facebook invitation and sent it out to some 800 people. "I named the event 'No answers No kids.' Just cause of the simple fact that if we continue like this we're just going to stop sending the kids to school," she said.

Hessen is the mother of kindergartner and a third grader at Northeast Elementary School and said she attended a meeting the principal held this week, but was ultimately more frustrated by the end of the 30 minutes allotted.

"Almost every question we asked, we got 'It's an ongoing investigation, we can't comment on that,'" she said.

She said she understood that it was under investigation, but she didn't feel like she had any answers.

"You're not reassuring me that I should feel OK with sending my kids on a bus every morning," she said. Add to that the constant email alerts and, she said she's worried this state of constant shelter-in-place and missing some school activities on account of the threats as has happened with her children will become the norm.

"Our kids do not deserve that," she said. "They're not learning at all."

About 20 parents and family members showed up Friday night to hold signs on the street corner in front of City Hall. Cars and trucks beeped and the group broke into chants of "we want answers," every so often.

Vickie Fiorentino said her son's school, Wittemore, has been great through the process, but it's still nerve wracking. "It scares you when you get the email and it's an hour later," she said of communications that were plentiful, but felt delayed.

She told City Councilor Diane LeBlanc (who stopped by the protest) she was conflicted, too, about wanting more of a police presence at school to sweep the buildings. Fiorentino said that she understood that police had a lot to do in the city between handling crime and drug overdoses.

Other parents said they absolutely wanted more of a police presence.

"They have armed security guards at banks to protect money, why can't they have armed guards protecting our schools?" asked Don Hodges who has a freshman at the high school. Still, he said his biggest gripe was the lack of information with which to make any judgement calls.

"For all we know it could be a hoax, it could be some kid trying to sow chaos, but the problem is we don't know," he said.

Others, like Rena LaRosa whose 5-year-old daughter is in kindergarten at Northeast said the amount of calls, word that children weren't being evacuated any more, and lack of a police presence frustrated her. "It's not even an excused absence if you choose not to send your child to school," she said. "It's a lose lose situation."

"Hoax or not, this should not be acceptable," said Marissa LaRosa her child's aunt.

Rena's daughter said for her part she hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

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