Bomb threat sends FHS into secure mode on first day of school
August 29, 2018
“There was a bomb threat today at school,” is not usually in a student’s day-to-day dinner conversation, but on Aug. 28, FHS students’ first day of school was interrupted by a bomb threat which sent them into secure mode.
“The Fenton Police department received a phone call indicating that there was a bomb threat to Fenton High School,” Assistant Principal Laura Lemke said. “It was a low-level credibility threat, which is in the category of a prank.”
Students and staff were in secure mode for approximately two hours, unable to leave classrooms, but permitted to resume teaching and learning activities. This differs from a lockdown, which is a more serious safety procedure.
“There was no specific time or place in the phone call,” School Resource Officer Tom Cole said. “Those details are what would differentiate between a low-credibility and high-credibility threat. If it was higher credibility, we might’ve found it necessary to go into a lockdown.”
Canine bomb dogs swept the campus to ensure it was safe. Student cooperation made the secure mode, or “soft lockdown” effective.
“I believe that this is an eye-opener for the kids at FHS,” senior Justice Fredrick said. “It shows that things like this can actually happen. The school handled it really well. If there is any sort of threat like this, they should take all measures necessary to make sure we’re safe.”
The offender who made the phone call has not yet been identified. Anyone with information regarding who might have made the threat can confidentially contact Cole at (810)629-5311 or [email protected].
