Woburn Superintendent: 'We are Prepared' For Threats

WOBURN, MA—With the recent flood of bomb threats around the area, Woburn residents have plenty of cause for concerns about a potential threat at city schools.

Woburn Superintendent Mark Donovan assured Residents at a recent School Committee meeting that the school system is prepared if such a situation arises, according to a report by the Daily Times Chronicle. Woburn has yet to face a bomb threat, but many area schools have had to deal with these unfortunate situations.

Reports Patrick Blais, who broke the story on the Daily Times Chronicle website:

During the recent School Committee discussion in Woburn, Donovan tried to assure parents the school officials are all regularly trained about how to respond to a myriad of emergency situations. Practice drills occur regularly in every educational facility to access the effectiveness of those responses, and school officials coordinate those activities closely with Woburn police.

Over the past couple of years, police and school principals have enacted lockdowns and other precautions for a range of situations, including possible threats emerging from bank robberies or other violent crimes that could result in a suspect taking refuge in a school building.

However, the superintendent declined to discuss in detail those protocols, not only because the responses vary depending upon the nature of the perceived threat, but because authorities don’t want to undermine the effectiveness of those preparedness plans by making them public.

“We don’t want to reveal any security procedures, but our response has always been based on an incident-management model,” said Donovan.

“We access the situation and make a decision based on that. There are a limited number of outcomes based on the threat. We’ve been fortunate so far, but we’re prepared,” he added.

The Massachusetts State Police announced Thursday that law enforcement officials will address the recent threats in a media session on Friday. The discussion will include updates on the investigation into the threats and a discussion about how bomb squads handle such situations.

Want more stories like this one in your inbox each day? Subscribe to Woburn Patch for breaking news alerts and our daily newsletters.