Parents at a Bay Area high school are demanding answers following a poorly handled bomb threat.
Casa Grande High School in east Petaluma received a bomb threat shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. The threat warned that an attack may occur at the campus’ lunchroom at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, however, parents, students and staff were not informed of the potential attack until mid-morning.
By the time the news spread throughout the campus of a bomb threat on Sept. 30, 1,600 students had already sat down in their morning classes.
"An incident like this occurred and they did not notify students or parents until the day the incident was threatened to be occurring is mind-boggling," concerned parent Beth Hughes said to The Press Democrat. "How can they claim that our children’s safety was their top priority?"
Matthew Harris, first-year superintendent of Petaluma City Schools, said Petaluma police and Casa Grande administrators did not believe the threat was credible. But he did admit that the school "could have done a better job communicating this out to the community," stating that they’ve learned from the experience, the newspaper said.
Despite the threat, Casa Grande High School opted not to lockdown on Thursday, instead bolstering police presence and deploying CHP bomb-sniffing dogs to secure portions of the campus.
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