BHS Bomb threat sparks high alert
By Nathan Straus News Reporter

News Reporter

It was just another day for Brownsboro High School Monday, November 5. Students left school to go home for the day and custodians made the rounds, searching for stray trash and making the building look tidy. Going into the bathroom, one custodian examined the walls of the men's room stall and found a message which would cause the school's alertness to explode: a bomb threat.

Elton Caldwell, superintendent of Brownsboro Independent School District, said all the situations he had been involved with, such as this one, were hoaxes.

"Still, we have to treat them like the possibilities are there," Caldwell said.

Kenneth Wooten, principal at BHS, said the threat listed a date and time.

"The date was Friday, and the time would be during the pep rally," Wooten said.

The pep rally, scheduled to happen on Friday, November 9, would take place in the gym. The decision to move the rally to the football field was made Tuesday or Wednesday, Wooten said.

Caldwell said the school was placed on heightened alert, and an investigation was immediately underway.

However, school continued as normal throughout the week.

The second threat also appeared as writing on the bathroom wall, Caldwell said. A student discovered the bomb threat Thursday, November 8 at around 11 am.

"We've narrowed it down to a group," Caldwell said of the suspects Monday, November 12.

Surveillance cameras had been set up in the school. From around 9:30 am to 11 am Thursday a camera recorded everyone who went into the bathroom. From footage, Caldwell said, it was clear that 23 students went into the bathroom during the time between when there was no writing and the time the second threat appeared.

Wooten said the authorities searched the school over Thursday night and locked up so no one could get in. The 23 students were interviewed and their parents were contacted. Friday passed without incident, the pep rally location having been moved.

The investigation will continue, Wooten said, until the culprit is found or until further proceedings are given up.

"We're going to remain on our guard and alert to anything out of the ordinary," Wooten said.