Bomb Scare At Lafayette High School
Lafayette High School evacuated due to a potential bomb.
Buses were lined up in the LHS student lot and loaded with students, three to a seat, to provide shelter during the more than two hour long evacuation.
Imagine being at work going about your normal day, a couple hours before you sent your child off to school to go through their daily routine. Now you’re at a desk and receive a phone call from the school, maybe it’s the attendance office telling you your child was late and marked absent, or possibly an update on an upcoming parent teacher conference. Often times these phone calls are disregarded because they are irrelevant, but on March 20th, 2017, at approximately 10:42am, parents were notified by principal Anita Swinton that students were evacuated due to a bomb threat received over the phone. What seemed to be a normal day was turned on its head by potential harm to students at Lafayette High School.
10:15 marks the beginning of AEP, a time allocated to students to complete assignments. As students transitioned from second block to AEP, an announcement was made over the intercom that was inaudible to the hallway masses due to noise levels. At 10:17 a second announcement was made, this time the words could be made out clearly. Faculty and students were instructed to
Students and teachers wait on the field for a very long time.
immediately evacuate to the track located on the back of the campus. There students waited for two hours and speculated as to why they were evacuated to an open field with biting wind. Soon rumors were confirmed that there was indeed a bomb threat at Lafayette. It became apparent when the James City County Fire Department was at the scene with a utility truck labeled “bomb squad”. They conducted a thorough investigation of the school to search for any hidden explosives. The examination concluded that there was no item of suspicion, save for “a bag left by the bleachers on the football field that merely contained clothing. At approximately 12:30pm students were instructed to go back into school and return to their third block class, to finish the with a shortened schedule where lunch was crammed into three twenty-minute time periods. Schooling resumed and parents picked up children to bring them home to safety.
The safety of students was the number one priority for the administration at Lafayette as well as the school board. When the bomb threat phone call was taken, Lafayette’s receptionist, Christine Trueblood, acted quickly to notify the principal. (When approached for inquiries by the Ledger staff, she preferred not to comment). Principal Anita Swinton evacuated the school and notified WJCC Central Office who then handled the matter appropriately according to
Students and teachers alike waited on the LHS track field, discussing events and phoning frantic parents and family members to calm and reassure them during the emergency evacuation.
procedures. The Ledger staff contacted WJCC Central Office in search of info regarding, what actions are taken during a bomb threat. It was Betsy Overkamp-Smith of WJCC Public Schools who fielded our questions. She told us that the principal lets central office know, the leadership team is informed of the event. It is important to communicate information of the event and discuss immediate notification to parents. There is lag time between initial announcement and letting parents know of the happenings that transpired. Media contacts the Central Office but information is carefully provided. Timing, content, and all of such information is then taken lead by the police department. There is an ongoing investigation at the moment to determine who made the call, at this time the police have taken full lead. Typically, information will be released by the police unless the school board explicitly asks. There seems to be a chain of authority where information is conveyed and procedures are followed, and WJCC adjusted to the situation and conducted themselves accordingly.
Everything worked like a well-oiled machine and that can be attributed to the security and staff of LHS. John Brown and William Capers, both apart of the security at Lafayette, were involved in getting students from the school to safety. John Brown commented, “Getting kids to safety wasn’t that crazy or
Buses were loaded and running to provide a source of warmth for about half of the student body.
hectic. It went well, the kids were pretty easy to get out, and getting them out was the first and number one priority.” Mr. Capers added, “The event wasn’t stressful, but getting the kids out and making sure they were all accounted for could easily cause confusion. Security doesn’t have to do anything concerning
the bomb threat itself, they just had to get the kids out and make sure they are accounted for.” All-in-all, authorities within Lafayette did an exemplary job at maintaining order and ensuring the safety of all students.
An event of this magnitude is enough to test those in charge of running the school. Although the bomb turned out to be an idle threat, it is scary to consider that at any given moment, there may be someone out there who is willing to cause harm to a large number of people, especially those in high school. If this situation were to happen again, confidence can be instilled in the public that WJCC’s number one priority is the safety of its students.
