By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
A bomb threat found written on a bathroom wall Tuesday afternoon at Williams Bay Junior/Senior High School led to the evacuation of students and staff.
In phone and email messages sent out to district parents Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Wayne Anderson said the Williams Bay police and fire departments were called to the school after the treat was discovered.
In a post to his blog Wednesday morning – which can be found on the school district’s website at www.williamsbayschools.org – Anderson said after the police department reviewed the threat, the school was put on lockdown and plans were made to evacuate students to the gymnasium of Williams Bay Elementary School.
Anderson wrote that following evacuation of students, the building was searched by the Williams Bay police and fire departments with the assistance of the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department, Principal William White, maintenance personnel, building staff members and Anderson.
Though the search did not produce any results, Anderson’s blog post said the Williams Bay Police Department also requested bomb-sniffing dogs from General Mitchell International Airport be sent to do another search of the building.
The dogs arrived at the school around 2:30 p.m. and did a search of the building and the parking lots, according to Anderson. The search did not find any evidence of a bomb or bomb-related materials. The post said the building was given the all clear by around 4:30 p.m.
Anderson said students were allowed back into the building and school personnel were available to help students retrieve their backpacks and belongings, stored in locked classrooms.
As an extra precaution, Anderson’s post said, all backpacks brought into the building Wednesday morning were left in the gymnasium where they were searched by school and police personnel, a search that once again did not produce any bombs or bomb-related materials.
Village of Williams Bay Police Chief Robert Pruessing said Wednesday afternoon they were “fortunate we did not locate any kind of device.”
Anderson wrote he’s proud of all parties involved in the response and the school will be reviewing all of the actions taken to determine where improvements could be made if ever confronted with a similar situation.
“I think that everything was handled extremely well,” Anderson wrote.
Pruessing said he also felt things went well Tuesday, noting that fire, police, emergency medical responders and school staff “worked very well together.”
In his post, Anderson said, this type of event is very disruptive and costly, not only financially but also in terms of time and emotional response.
“Due to this threat, students and staff were deprived of an entire afternoon of classroom activities and instruction,” he said. “This event also made it necessary for police officers and fire department personnel to be diverted from their normal jobs and assignments and spend most of the afternoon helping us search our building so that we could make certain the building and everyone inside it would be safe.
“People suffered emotionally because of the worry and stress about whether or not everyone was safe.”
Looking at financial cost, Anderson said, it will likely end up being somewhere in the “thousands or tens of thousands of dollars” once the cost of the hours spent by police and fire personnel to search the building and the district’s own personnel costs associated with loss of teaching time are calculated.
In his post, Anderson made it clear the situation is not being taken lightly and the person or persons responsible for the threat will face harsh penalties.
“The individual(s) that wrote this threat may have felt he was doing a harmless prank that could get students out of school,” he wrote.
“Once the individual is caught, he/she will face disciplinary consequences within the school district up to and including the possibility of being expelled from school as well as criminal charges from the village.”
“This event was not taken as a joke and it will not be treated as a joke by either the school district or law enforcement.”
Pruessing said Wednesday the police department was scheduling interviews with people regarding the event. Additionally, Pruessing said, under state statutes regarding bomb threats, those responsible could face Class I felony charges, which could result in a maximum penalty of $10,000 fines and up to 3 ½ years in prison.
However, Pruessing said, this does not include financial costs incurred by all parties that participated in the response, including fire, police, EMS, the school and the bomb-sniffing dogs. He said it is a real possibility restitution for these costs would be sought.
