Bomb Scare Leaves West Hempstead Parents, Faculty Shaken Up and Seeking Answers

Days after a caller threatened to bomb the West Hempstead Middle School, parents and teachers were still shaken up and seeking answers from school officials.

“I care about my students and colleagues…and take my job every seriously. But I’m also a daughter, and a wife and a mother of two children,” West Hempstead Middle School teacher Amy Rogan told the school district’s administrators Tuesday night during the public comment portion of the Board of Education meeting.

Rogan, who teaches English and Social Studies, was outraged at the way the school’s leaders handled the bomb scare that occurred in the middle school on Friday - mainly their decision not to evacuate the building and the adjacent high school.

“I do not understand why we did not leave that building or even enter that building that day,” Rogan said, explaining that she had heard that the district had learned about the threat the night before and failed to follow its protocol. These accusations were not entirely true though, according to school officials.

West Hempstead Superintendent John Hogan provided some clarity about the situation to the parents and faculty in attendance at the Jan. 19 meeting.

The threat actually came in late Thursday afternoon, Hogan said, when the caller left a voice message indicating that there was a bomb in the middle school, but the office did not check the messages until the following morning.

“I wasn’t notified about the threat until 8 am,” Hogan said. By this time, students and faculty had already entered the school buildings.

 This is not the first time the West Hempstead school district has been faced with a bomb scare. Two years ago, there were three separate incidents in which administrators needed to respond to calls claiming a bomb had been placed in one of the school building. During the first two of these scares, the affected buildings were evacuated.

 “Then, we started to deal with copycat bomb-scare-ers,” Hogan explained. “Students thought the way to get a day off was to call in a bomb threat.”

 Unlike the previous threats, Hogan said this one lacked “specificity.” In the past, the caller had indicated what time the bomb was set to go off, but this message was “very quick and nonspecific and sounded like a prank,” Hogan said, adding that the district did consult with local detectives and top law enforcement officials.

 “The Bomb and Arson Squad had listened to the message over the phone and were responding,” Hogan said. “The protocol was followed. I’m not one to take any threat…or any protocol lightly.”

 In the event of an emergency, the district can evacuate students to other schools in the district – a measure that has been used during one of the past threats - or to Echo Park, located across the street from the Middle School and High School.

 Between the police officers who had responded and the roughly 40 professionals in the building at the time, Rogan said, “I think we could’ve handled crossing 500 students across the street to Echo Park.”

 According to Hogan, on this occasion, Echo Park was closed when the district phoned over there that morning and the school buses needed to transport the students to another facility had already left the area.

 “Many of the things you said publicly were certainly under consideration that morning,” Hogan told Rogan.  “You get various pieces of advice,” he said, explaining that the police suggested moving the students to mass meeting rooms, which was the route the district chose to take.

 Shanell Parish Brown, a mother of a middle school student, said “I think that any threat, regardless of tone and specificity… we need to evacuate the school until the building as been swept sufficiently.”

 Despite claims that the classrooms were never checked, Hogan said that the entire building had already been swept three times before the students were brought to the gym.

Hogan also said that he had to factor in the conditions outside when deciding whether or not to evacuate.

 “In the back of my mind is three to six inches of snowfall, a 30 degree day… …mounds of snow…and a bit of sidewalk that hadn’t been cleared,” he said.

 Deputy Superintendent Richard Cunningham also added, “When you have a non-specific threat, you have to consider, ‘Is the threat inside the building or is it bait to get you outside?’ This was also considered.”

“I’m also a father and son, and I take my responsibility to the boys and girls very seriously,” Hogan said.  “For better or worse, I have to make the decisions and I have to live with them.”

While Hogan said he believes he made the right decisions with the information given to him at the time and the options available, he continues to replay the day in his mind, review the steps taken and seek feedback from all parties involved.

“The big question remains – do you evacuate in that situation or not? I was at the middle school all day and did go home that evening and continued to think about. I thought about it all weekend and continue to think about it now,” Hogan said, “The more input I get the better off we will be… How you think may change how the district responds in the future.”

Hogan has already met with the Middle School’s PTA President and will be attending faculty meetings this week in both the Middle School and High School to discuss the situation. He is also working with detectives who are trying to track down the perpetrator of the threat and said, “We will prosecute this person.” Hogan also relayed this message to the students in both the Middle School and High School when he went on the PA system that day, warning any pranksters who might have been involved.

One father was appalled that the district had not checked the voice messages left on the machine sooner.

“Wouldn’t it make sense to screen those calls prior to school?” he said.

Hogan responded, “You raise a good point and it’s something we have addressed.”

The father said that if the message had been heard sooner, the district could have cancelled classes, but told students that they would still have to make the day up, discouraging anyone who may be making false threats to get a day off from school.

“If it’s someone playing a prank, they would have to stop,” he said.

Cunningham also suggested the district consider holding a forum to answer parents questions immediately after an incident such as this to prevent panic and rumors from “gaining life of their own.”

One area where Hogan admitted the district fell short was communication. Due to a human error the message alerting parents and others subscribed to the ConnectEd service was sent out nearly an hour after he had intended.

One parent said she never received the message at all, even though she has signed up for the service, and had to find out about the bomb scare from another parent who was kind enough to send a text message to her.

“We will look into the protocol of ConnectEd,” Hogan assured her and also reminded all parents to submit all of the phone numbers they have – work, cell, home, etc.  – to the district so that they can be reached in these emergencies situations no matter where they are. He also said they are looking into adding student cell phones to this service, in case a situation occurs when the students are outside of the building, perhaps during lunchtime, that would prevent them from re-entering school.

“I made the decisions and am willing to accept whatever concerns people have…and will put them in my head if we have to go through this situation again, “ Hogan said. “If I could convey to you the knot that was in my stomach I would do so…I wouldn’t want anyone to leave here tonight thinking for a second that I haven’t heard what u said to me…I hear you.”

Stay tuned to Patch for a full recap of the entire meeting on Jan. 18, including an update on the board's policies regarding field permits, proposed tax breaks for local firefighters and a lawsuit the district has signed onto against Nassau County.