podpolia

“Mr. Barner, R. is segregating the classroom! Tell her to come back over here with us!”

“Mr. Barner, R. is segregating the classroom! Tell her to come back over here with us!”

I didn’t write about this yesterday because I was so thoroughly exhausted, but here it is:

Tense times on campus: Threat clears JB school

By ROXANN MILLER For Public Opinion

MERCERSBURG — “Bomb goes at 12:15 off. Not a joke.”

That message, written in large letters in red lipstick on a girls’ bathroom wall at James Buchanan High School, Mercersburg, caused officials to go into emergency response mode and clear the school Thursday.

Tuscarora Superintendent Rebecca Erb said she was notified by high school principal Rodney Benedick of the threat about 9:30 a.m. after a female student found the writing on the wall of a bathroom near the cafeteria and notified school officials.

Students and faculty — approximately 750 students and 65 teachers and staff members who were in the building at the time — were evacuated from the school as a precaution about 11:30 a.m.

They walked to the football stadium, where they remained for about 15 minutes until they were moved to the nearby James Buchanan Middle School and placed in the gymnasium and the auditorium, due to the threat of rain and cool temperatures, according to Dr. Erb.

“We were working with the Pennsylvania State Police and they advised us to evacuate the building a half an hour before the bomb was to go off at 12:15,” said Erb about her reason for waiting until 11:30 to evacuate the building — two hours after the threat was discovered.

Erb eventually dismissed the high school and middle school students at 1 p.m. while the elementary students were dismissed at the normal time, 2:15 p.m.

The high school was sealed off after students and staff had been evacuated so police could search the building.

Parents were also able to pick up their high school children at the main office of the middle school and take them home.

Gloria Dixon, Mercersburg, came to the middle school shortly after 1 p.m. to pick up her daughter and two other students.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on and in this day you just never know,” said Dixon as she was standing with her daughter Jacqueline, seventh grade; and Jonathan Brown, ninth grade and his brother Chris Brown, seventh grade.

Alex Grubbs, a 15-year-old JBHS freshman, was in second period (which starts about 9:30 a.m.) when he heard the news that something was going on in the school.

“I was pretty calm, but there were people panicking,” said Grubbs, who was leaving the middle school with his mother, Pam Upton. “I was a little bit worried when I heard there was a bomb threat.”

He said he was glad that the administrators took the bomb threat seriously.

Tim Rock, a 15-year-old JBHS freshman, was also in second period when he heard about the threat.

“An announcement came over the intercom about the threat. I really didn’t react at first. At first, we were calm. We really didn’t think it was very serious,” Rock said. “But, after they evacuated us it came to the other kids’ minds that it really could be serious.”

Rock doesn’t understand why someone would do something to scare classmates.

“I thought it was messed up that someone would do this and think they were cool to try to scare us. I think this person should be arrested and never return to school,” Rock said.

Barbara Patterson, Fort Loudon, came to pick up her daughter Christina, who is a senior this year.

“I was a little concerned, especially with everything that’s been going on (referring to Virginia Tech). When you hear something like this you feel nervous until you see your child,” Patterson said.

Christina said this is nothing new — she’s seen five threats or what she calls “pranks” since she started at JBHS.

After-school activities and events were also canceled at both the middle school and high school Thursday night following the threat.

“I feel I did the right thing,” Erb said. “As a parent myself I would want the safety of the students to be the main priority.”

While Mercersburg Police Chief Larry Thomas was the first on the scene, state police arrived shortly thereafter and entered the building with several bomb-sniffing dogs.

“This is very, very serious,” said Thomas. He said there have only been a handful of threats at the high school, but they have increased over the past several years.

Erb said, if caught, the person or persons responsible for the threat will be arrested and, if a student, expelled from school.

Thomas said an investigation will take place and whoever is responsible will face a minimum of terroristic threat charges, which are felony offenses.

“We will deal with this and take it very seriously,” Thomas said. “This is not a joke. I just hope parents will talk to their children and tell them that this is not a joke and it’s something that could ruin their future.”

A complete search of the building by the Pennsylvania State Police and several bomb sniffing dogs found no bombs in the school.

In light of getting the all-clear sign, Erb said students are to report to school at their regular time today.

Oh yes, there was much excitement. On the whole though, the evacuation was handled very smoothly and professionally, and according to protocol. It was still really stressful, but it wasn’t traumatic at all.

Yesterday when we were discussing the situation with the school district and needing to renovate the high school, one of my students spontaneously thought up a song on the conditions in the boys’ bathrooms. I’m not sure if this is all of it (this is the only part he wrote down when I asked him for a copy of it), but it’s rather amusing, and written to the tune of a popular song by The Police. Without further ado:

“Every squat I take
Every squeeze I make
Every handle I graze
Every single day
They’ll be watchin’ me

“There’s no doors to break
With every crap I take
Even all the squirts
It’ll always hurt
When they’re watchin’ me

Chorus

Oh can’t they see
This toilet belongs to me
All the poops that break
With every picture they take…
They’ll be watchin’ me”

I’m not positive, but I think some of my seniors plan on making a music video of it. If that happens, I’ll definitely get them to post it to YouTube and I’ll share it on here.

UPDATE 4/14/07 11.26PM: Fixed a stupid little typo. I really need to start proofreading these things.

Well, two of my students wrote letters to the editor about the condition of the high school, and I made a guest appearance. I’m reproducing the letter here because the PO usually makes things subscriber-only after the first 30 days. (Here’s the link if you want to see the original.)

Letter to the editor: Students hope for improvements at JB

Public Opinion Online

As students at James Buchanan High School, we read your article and are deeply concerned. It really bothers us that we can’t even feel safe going to school anymore.

As athletes we feel our athletic facilities are also in need of repair/renovation. As you said in your article, the tennis courts are wretched. It looks like a jungle with grass and weeds and many tennis balls are lost.

We understand that our parents’ taxes will be raised, and maybe we should do fund-raisers instead of just raising taxes. We need to do our parts as well as our parents.

Many people have said that school should be a second home, but if this was my home, I wouldn’t feel safe or comfortable living here. Traveling to other schools for away games and seeing how up-to-date their facilities are makes our school look like we are poor, as if no one even attends our school. It is a big issue with our morale and our pride. We don’t need a mansion, just a livable school.

The girls’ restrooms are another issue. In the girls’ locker room, we are forced to have friends hold the doors to the stalls shut. There are only two stalls that (at times) shut.

Our English teacher, Mr. Barner, informed us that his window in his room fell out and the maintenance men didn’t have the right equipment to fix it. How safe is that?

In conclusion, we agree 100 percent with everything you said in your article and more. Thank you for addressing this issue and taking time to read our letter.

Cheryl Keefer

Lindsay Gearhart

9th grade students

James Buchanan High School

They did a pretty good job of it, I think. My students are really interested in the whole issue, largely because they have to deal with it every day. The only thing I would have made a little clearer was that the maintenance men DID have the equipment necessary to fix the window, but it’s old enough that they can’t get the parts anymore. It’s a fiddly little distinction, but I would have made it anyway. In any event, stay tuned for more on the school — my AP English 12 class is doing mass-communication projects on the topic, and I’ll probably share some of what they come up with here.

M was trying to get his packet of papers all stapled together, and had spent several minutes struggling with the papers and the stapler, and despite several tries had not managed to get all 14 pages stapled. He said, “Mr. Barner, this pencil sharpener really doesn’t work. You really need to have it fixed.”