Round 2: Deer Valley HS Evacuated Due to Bomb Threat

Kudos go out to Antioch Police and Deer Valley High School staff for working on back-to-back days to ensure student safety and search for potential explosives on campus. For the second day in a row, an anonymous caller threatened the school with a bomb threat.

The evacuation began at 10:45 a.m. after police received the call at 10:43 a.m. explained Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando.

Thanks to the Every 15-minutes Program, an Antioch Police Officer was already on scene and began to immediately work with school staff to ensure safety of the students. A total of four officers and school staff searched the school with the last officer finally cleared at 1:09 pm—it should be noted, the evacuation was lifted at 12:40 pm.

“In light of what is going on in Boston, people are more hypersensitive and that is what we are trained to do. If we find something, we call the bomb squad, “said Chief Cantando. ” If someone is calling in a bomb threat, either they want us to find it or it’s a hoax. We are going to respond. Our first concern is to make sure everyone is safe, if we can’t find anything  everyone is released back.”

With two calls in two days, the incident has allowed the Police Department to look at ways to better work with the school district to ensure they are doing things in the most expeditious way while being safe.

Although Chief Cantando would not reveal if they had any leads or not, he admitted they were following up to any and all potential leads.  As for the caller, Cantando stated that when they find out who the caller is, they will prosecute the person to the full extent of the law.

While the incident is serious in nature, it highlights an overall much larger problem with Antioch which is when something like this occurs, it depletes resources. With officers on scene at the high school (as they should be), it then takes away resources from other incidents in an already depleted police department. The public hopefully will realize the need for more officers on the streets to ensure the public’s safety.

Here is the message sent out by Ken Gardner, principal of Deer Valley High School Tuesday

DEER VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL:
This is Ken Gardner, principal of DVHS. Today (Tuesday) we had a bomb threat on the campus in an undetermined location. The school was immediately evacuated and the students are in a safe location on our athletic fields. Please understand we cannot release your student at this time until the search has been completed and all clear has been sounded. Please remain away from the school for your safety and the safety of the students and staff.

 

On Monday, a call came in around 1:45 pm warning of an explosive on campus but after a search was conducted, there were no explosives found.  It caused students to be evacuated and placed on a nearby field.