Bomb threat handled badly

To the editor:

I am writing this letter to express my concerns about how the situation at the high school was handled or actually not handled. I am shocked that our children sat in a school where there was a bomb threat. First of all, a threat was made on Wednesday evening, which leads me to ask why were we in school at all? I would not be sitting here now if we would have been notified through Connect Ed as we are for every absence, report card day, conference times and numerous other things. Shouldn’t a bomb threat be added to the list of important notices?

Second, it was stated on the news that we as parents were notified by email. Was that a joke? The email I received after I saw the news was at 1:52 p.m. Do you think that was very effective? If I would have been sitting in front of my computer all day I still would have received the critical information only 8 minutes before the end of the school day. The lock down had been in effect for hours. Why were our children kept in an unsafe environment?

Third, another statement was made that children were allowed to notify their parents by cell phone. This may have been the circumstance in part of the school, but where one of my sons was being held, the staff was taking the phones away. He was able to get a call out to me at 11:24 to tell me about the bomb threat and where he was and that he was hungry. The phone was confiscated shortly after the call. I went to the school to pick up my children to find a total frenzy of parents, students, staff, news people and all with a bomb threat underfoot.

I am disappointed in the finger pointing that has occurred during this terrifying bomb threat. I am appalled at the justification being made that in our history there has never been a school blown up by a bomb. Although it sounds good it is not a true statement and should never be used as an excuse for lack of action. A bomb threat is just that, a bomb threat. It should not be taken lightly, and our children should have been evacuated immediately. There is no excuse that is acceptable here. There is no room for mistakes, poor judgment, lack of effort, or any arctic temperature that can dismiss the fact that for hours our children were kept in a building with the possibility of a bomb. No business, supermarket, post office, home, or federal building would be willing to gamble with innocent lives by not evacuating, but our school, holding the most precious assets of over 1,200 families, was. The excuse “it was taken out of our hands” is not good enough for me, the bomb was dropped too close to my family.

Katie Mobley

Wasilla