Posted by sunnbear on September 18, 2007 at 11:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Probably someones' lame idea of a prank to get them out of class. It is not funny. In this day and age, it is a major concern. Whomever did this is probably stupid enough to think it is cool to tell all his/her friends. They will be caught and dealt with accordingly. I hope!

Posted by BeaHappi on September 18, 2007 at 11:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Definitely not something to joke about but don't you know that the NPHS students are just so happy for this day off! I remember when stuff like this would happen (power outages, whatever) and we'd get the day out of school. A bonus!

Posted by Thegoz on September 18, 2007 at 1:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Not that the students get much off. The majority of them are still on campus going through the mind-numbingly slow process of being allowed to leave. The parents have to vouch for each kid to leave. Thus, 3 hours after the initial scare, most are still there waiting to leave, with the parent's wasting time off from work to get them. They need to catch this idiot and hang him by his ankles for all to beat.

Posted by theclass on September 18, 2007 at 1:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)

..and a day off today means one added on at the end of the year! Someone probably wasn't ready for a test today. Sad.

Posted by BeaHappi on September 18, 2007 at 2:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)

thegoz - see having been out of HS for WAY too long I'm obviously out of the loop of the process. Back in the day it'd just be school is closed and we'll all be sent home.

In any case, the real issue is some jerk making threats and I hope they're able to find out who it is.

Posted by thogek on September 18, 2007 at 2:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)

"The majority of them are still on campus going through the mind-numbingly slow process of being allowed to leave."

Indeed. This is very frustrating. The parents have to stand in line (some missing work) for as long as a couple of hours, and the kids're stuck on campus (where a bomb supposedly is) waiting for their parents to clear baggage claim. (If all the caller wanted to do was cause the waste of about five thousand man-hours, it worked.)

I'm unclear as to why this exit process is needed. These aren't infants; they're the same high school students many of whom leave very much on their own (via car, bike, or foot) every afternoon after school.

Shouldn't a primary goal be to get the students *away* from campus (and thus the purported bomb) as quickly, calmly, and efficiently as possible?

The idiot who called in the threat is partially to blame for this time-waste. But isn't also the school itself for utilizing such a massively inefficient exit process?

Or maybe someone can explain why the process is needed...

Posted by NPMommy on September 18, 2007 at 5:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Only in America would a parent stand in a line outside a school separated by only a chain linked fence with their child in view sitting on bleachers threatened by a bomb for over four hours! Newbury Park High School "officials" not only endangered students by holding them at the site of a threat, but called 2500 parents to the scene as well! Terrorists are laughing today!

Posted by imp9824 on September 18, 2007 at 7:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)

And when a kid leaves campus and gets hit by a vehicle, the school is liable. When people want to settle everything with a lawsuit, schools must put every possible measure in place to protect themselves. If schools had the sized pocketbooks as the parents in the community, it would be a different story.

Posted by red13rocks69 on September 18, 2007 at 9:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)

thogek, I'm going to reply to your post in two posts because I cannot go over the 3,000 char. limit.

The majority of them are still on campus going through the mind-numbingly slow process of being allowed to leave.

"Indeed. This is very frustrating. The parents have to stand in line (some missing work) for as long as a couple of hours, and the kids're stuck on campus (where a bomb supposedly is) waiting for their parents to clear baggage claim. (If all the caller wanted to do was cause the waste of about five thousand man-hours, it worked.)"

If you want to think that it is a waste of time to protect minors who cannot protect themselves go right ahead, but I refuse to think that way.

"I'm unclear as to why this exit process is needed. These aren't infants; they're the same high school students many of whom leave very much on their own (via car, bike, or foot) every afternoon after school."

The exit process is needed because it is state law. It is state law because we live in an age of terrorism and kidnapping. The students are not allowed to leave because while school is in session the school district in question is responsible for their safety, the ways for them to be able to leave are: 1. if a parent or guardian comes and shows their id, signs the student out and leaves. 2. if a student is over 18, they are released and they leave campus. 3. if no one comes for them and they are not over 18, they have to wait until the normal time that school gets out and they leave as usual. At no time is a student released to an adult whose name is NOT on that student's emergency card, i.e. a parent can not take their child's best friend just because the child wants them to.

Posted by red13rocks69 on September 18, 2007 at 9:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Part Two

"Shouldn't a primary goal be to get the students *away* from campus (and thus the purported bomb) as quickly, calmly, and efficiently as possible?"

You do understand that the students are not locked in the classrooms and other buildings of the school, don't you? That is a "lock down" and that happens when things like a gun are seen on campus or there is an escaped convict in the area. What happened today is called an "All Evacuate" order and it is issued by the principal. Students that were in their P.E. classes when the call went out had to go home in their P.E. clothes, several girls even said that their purses and cell phones were in the locker room. They were given two options: 1. go home in their P.E. clothes and leave the purses and cell phones locked up over night. 2. they could wait for the "All Clear" to sound and go in to change their clothes and get their stuff.

"The idiot who called in the threat is partially to blame for this time-waste. But isn't also the school itself for utilizing such a massively inefficient exit process?"

The idiot is EVERYTHING to blame in this, it is squarely on his/her shoulders. NO, the school is NOT to blame in this "massively inefficient exit process?" because schools have tried several different "emergency exit procedures" and none have worked and it is partly the blame of the parents because they continue to not obey the rules that are set down for the release of their children. Note to parents: Anytime you go down to the school, and that is any school, to pick up your child while school is in session and weather or not it is an emergency, do the school officials a favor BRING YOUR I.D. One man was so audacious as to WALK down to the school without his i.d. and tried to get his child out. If he thinks he can get his child out without showing his i.d., I guess he does not care who gets his child out! If you child is sick at school, do you just go running out of the house to pick them up, I would hope not! Being an adult and knowing the ways of the world, means that you should know that you should always have your i.d. with you whenever you go out. And I'm not even going to get into it about the guy who almost got arrested because he came close to losing control.

"Or maybe someone can explain why the process is needed..."

Yeah, I just did that.

Posted by lylecolton on September 18, 2007 at 10:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

well yes it is a liability for the school to let us kids go, but one lawsuit is better than 2000+ if there is a bomb and it goes off. I waited 1 1/2 hours for them to call my name. My dad was all of 50 feet away and I couldnt leave. So I belive that they need to come up with a better plan.

Posted by red13rocks69 on September 18, 2007 at 11:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)

NPMommy,

"Only in America would a parent stand in a line outside a school separated by only a chain linked fence with their child in view sitting on bleachers threatened by a bomb for over four hours!"
First of all, your child was NOT threatened by a bomb for over four hours. Did you even know there had been a fire drill BEFORE the bomb threat was known about this morning! So the football bleachers where all the students were massed, was actually the safest place they could be at the school IF there had been a bomb. It was four hours that they were on the bleachers because that is how long it took to do the "sweep" of the buildings. Before the buildings were swept, the football stadium and field area were also swept after the students were sent back to their classrooms when the firedrill ended.

"Newbury Park High School "officials" not only endangered students by holding them at the site of a threat, but called 2500 parents to the scene as well!"
Well, they are called "officials" because that is what they are, just as there are law enforcement officials, Los Robles Hospital officials and government officials. You are not called an official because you are not one, you are called a parent because you are one. There is no need for you to mock them, their job is hard enough without people like you who think they have all the answers but only criticize instead of offering real solutions. "endangered students by holding them at the site of a threat," You say that as if the school were holding them against their will or even worse for ransom! You can complain that all 2500 parents were called and showed up at the same time but how else should it have been done? Can you answer that! Should it have been staggered in some way, maybe by last name or grade. I don't think that either way would have been fair. Do you? The "REAL" reason that it was so slow is that parents tried to get their kids but did not have their id to prove who they were and there were others who created traffic problems on Lesser Drive, which is where the only gate for picking up a student is when there is an emergency.

"Terrorists are laughing today!"
NO, I don't think that terrorists are laughing at this, but I'm laughing at the fact that you posted that statement.

Posted by thogek on September 19, 2007 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)

red13rocks69,

Thanks for the elaboration. It should have occurred to me that, in today's increasing atmosphere of avoid-responsibility-by-suing-over-everything, the schools would have to follow a process that would officially cover themselves in terms of liability. The end result is still absurd, IMO, but at least understandable in that context.

And yes, plenty of parents were not helping the process along in various ways. (When much this same thing happened at NPHS a year ago, it was much the same.) My wife was there, waiting in line like the rest of them. But, being simply physically unable to stand in line for three hours waiting to claim our daughter, she was after a bit able to point this out (and present her SS disability ID) and get moved to the front of the line (in spite of some other parents' snide accompanying comments). At least the school personnel enacting the odd process were doing what they could to move it along for everyone, and that much was appreciated.

I agree that, given this need to cover liability , coming up with an efficient way to send 2100 kids (most of whom are minors) home early is a daunting task. I'd love to see some effort to collect suggestions from the community; let those of us complaining about the process make suggestions to improve it. Most of the suggestions will probably be crap, but the educational process going with it (about why a process is needed) would be valuable.

One suggestion for next time this happens might be for groups of parents to make sure they're listed on each others' school emergency cards so that one parent from the group can go collect all kids in that group. (Think: Carpooling.) This would cut down somewhat on the volume of traffic involved, and might speed things up a bit for everyone.

And if I may disagree on one tangential point...
"Terrorists are laughing today!"
"NO, I don't think that terrorists are laughing at this..."
Of course they (or whoever called in the threat) are. They succeeding in tying up what must have been well over five or six thousand man-hours simply by making one crank call. In the small mind of one who would make such a call, that must feel like quite an achievement. (Sad, yes, but...)

Thanks.

Posted by thogek on September 19, 2007 at 10:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)

"...with their child in view sitting on bleachers threatened by a bomb for over four hours!"
"First of all, your child was NOT threatened by a bomb for over four hours."

Not to nitpick, but... Do we know this for certain? I never heard whether the fields or bleachers (which are certainly part of campus) had been definitively ruled out as a possible location of the purported bomb before the process to herd everyone there (or keep them there following the preceding fire drill) had begun. (Maybe I just missed it?)

Posted by thogek on September 19, 2007 at 10:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)

"...Before the buildings were swept, the football stadium and field area were also swept after the students were sent back to their classrooms when the firedrill ended."

Hmm. Guess you already answered my last question. :-)

"Did you even know there had been a fire drill BEFORE the bomb threat was known about this morning! So the football bleachers where all the students were massed,..."

So this was not actually the case then, right? Students went out for the fire drill, then back to classes, then back out for the bomb threat...

I'd be curious as to an actual chronology of what did actually happen. Were students sitting in their classrooms unaware while the bleachers were being swept before they were evacuated to the bleachers? Or...?

Posted by thogek on September 19, 2007 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)

One more thought... then I'll stop... really... for now...

An NPHS student is permitted to leave campus on his/her own during the school day's lunch break provided that s/he has a parent's signature on file with the school office indicating parental agreement to allow the student to do so. Is there anything preventing a similar parental agreement to authorize that same student from leaving campus early on his/her own in the event of an emergency or other event that would end the school day unexpectedly early?

Knowing our wacky legal/political environment, there's probably something...

Posted by ca4ever on September 19, 2007 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Wow, you all have put alot of time and effort into these posts, when all that really matters is that everyone was ok. Does it seem like a timely process, yes, but more than likely I am sure that they realized it was just a prank and you have to wait in line and go through a timely process at the airport as well, for safety measures. So, really, there is no reason to complain about it, just make the most of it and be thankful that it is over and everyone is safe. That is all anyone could ask for, Right?

Posted by sarahmd on September 19, 2007 at 3:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I am a junior at NPHS and I feel that many parents overreacted during the bomb threat. The day started with a lockdown/fire drill that we knew was going to occur. When we got back to class, 15 min. later there was an announcement that we were supposed to go to the field for an evacuation. As you know, the same thing happened last year. Many of us who were there last year thought it was just another drill or another hoax. While sitting on the bleachers for 3 hours was uncomfortable, it wasn't scary or anything. Many parents got mad at the school which wasn't fair because the faculty did the best they could to get us out of there. They stayed very calm and helped the students to stay calm too. I wish it would've gone faster, but I am thankful we all got out safely. A suggestion for the parents is that the next time something like this happens, be prepared with your ID and know who is on your emergency card. This makes things go a lot faster.