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Bomb threat
CRESSKILL
Bomb threat forces evacuation
By Sophia Gonzalez
Staff Writer
April 17 2008
A written bomb threat found today in the girls’ bathroom forced the evacuation of more than 730 Cresskill Jr./Sr. High School students.
Students and faculty evacuated the school at 1:15 p.m., where they waited outside on football bleachers. They reentered the building around 2:40 p.m., following a local and county police search of the building.
Schools Supertintendent Charles Khoury said that a female student found a note at 11:30 a.m. with the message, “bomb 11 a.m.,” and immediately alerted Vice Principal Paul Diverio.
The superintendent then said that school officials notified police.
“Because the time indicated was before the note was found, we had a variety of options and we figured that this [an evacuation] was the thing to do,” he said in response to the lapse of time from note’s receipt and the school’s evacuation.
He said that the students would have been immediately evacuated “had it [the note] said in a half hour.”
School officials activated the reverse 9-1-1 calling system, which warned parents that an evacuation had taken place. The message also encouraged parents not to pick up their children.
Police Chief Steven Lillis then said, “We also thought it prudent to call the county police.”
Arriving at the scene, a county K-9 unit conducted a sweep of the school while a patrol car blocked the Lincoln Drive entrance to the school.
Even a group of teachers that had returned from lunch could not enter the school grounds. They waited beside their cars on Cresskill Avenue.
Police cleared the building shortly before the end of the school day.
As students emptied into the parking lot after school, the superintendent said that there would be an announcement asking students for any information regarding the threat. The incident is still under investigation by the Cresskill police.
“We’re letting kids know it’s [a bomb threat] serious and it disrupts the police and takes them off the roads,” said Khoury.
E-mail: gonzalezso@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6711
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