Recent School Bomb Threats in the News

I live in the same area as you so I can relate to what you're talking about. For those outside of Massachusetts, we have been hit with an unusually high number of threats being made to schools in the eastern part of the state and these threats have of course been very disruptive to schools and students. On Tuesday, 15 schools received threats and last Friday, there were 7. Some schools have cancelled classes or dismissed kids early, others evacuated for a couple of hours before letting kids back in and other determined that there was no credible threat and carried on as normal.

I think for your son, you need to help him see this for what it most likely is, which is an annoying and disruptive prank that gets attention from media and law enforcement. The FBI is involved and will be looking for the source of these threats. We let them do their jobs and move on with our lives. Unfortunately, although we all probably experienced bomb threats in school (we had about 1 a year when I was in high school and we would have to stand outside for an hour or so until given the all-clear to go back in), that was before people were actually shooting up schools.

This info probably isn't helpful to share with him, but in my mind, the real threats are ones that don't announce themselves ahead of time.

Bomb threats are nothing new.
I remember being in 2nd grade and spending several hours outside in the snow with no coat while our school was checked for a bomb.
That was in the 70's.
We finally were allowed to walk across the sports field to the high school so we could warm up in the auditorium.

You son has to find a way to deal with the fear and let life go on as normal as possible.
Talk to your sons guidance counselor - maybe they can do something or suggest some methods of coping.

I recall the bomb drills back in elementary school when you got under your desk.

Now there are lockdown drills in schools so they can prepare.

It's a part of life and you'll drive yourself crazy if you go through life filled with fear.

Depending on how serious he really is with this fear vs just not wanting to go to school... You might set up a meeting with a counselor to help him deal with these fears.

Good luck

Great answer from JB. I live in Massachusetts as well, so I've seen all of this unfold just as you have.

One kid has already been caught and there will be severe penalties. It's good if kids talk about this, how it's not funny and it's not a prank. There are repercussions.

I agree that real terrorists don't call in their attentions to the individual schools. There is no value, actually, to a terror attack if people aren't really hurt - that's a sad and pathetic reality, but it's true. In the 60s and 70s, we had bomb threats all the time (colleges and high schools mostly). Rarely if ever was there an explosion or even a real bomb. Almost always, these are kids who are mad at their professors/teachers, who are trying to get out of a test or just general school attendance, or who are getting a charge out of inconveniencing everyone. In rare cases, they may also be diversions - for example, sending 40 police cars to a high school means there are fewer police available to respond to convenience store robberies or home invasions, so some criminals may think these are good plans. Mostly, I think these will turn out to be immature high school students getting their jollies. Pathetic.

The schools, the police and the FBI have no choice but to evacuate or lockdown (depending on the nature of the threat), but mostly these are extremely high wastes of community resources which divert police from their regular jobs.

Kids your child's age are really just seeing themselves as mortal and vulnerable for the first time in their lives - they are starting to gaze ahead at adulthood, and so they are confronted - uncomfortably so - with adult realities but without the historical context of this sort of things happening for decades. We don't want to brush off their concerns, and certainly kids (and everyone else) are at risk of someone coming in with a high powered rifle (Columbine, Newtown, you name it), but historically the bomb threats just have not been real threats.

Some pathetic teens just really love to make others miserable to make themselves feel good.

Good luck - I know it's so hard.

I have to say that telling a kid 'this is nothing new' will do little to nothing to reassure him. I'm with those who say don't minimize this for him, it's very real to him. Sometimes, it's hard to hear what the kids are afraid of because we fear the same thing, so it's a lot to take in. But just letting him know you hear HIS fears will help him a lot. Ask him what he's specifically afraid of and instead of saying "you don't need to worry about that" (not that you are saying that), say "that would be a scary thing to suddenly have a teacher move you guys quickly outside right?" Just parroting back to him what he is telling you will let him know that you really get what he is saying. It's simple but amazing what a relief that is for kids.

The other thing to do is to tell him that it is a scary feeling, and then tell him how much the school prepares for these things. He's old enough to hear that school have meetings and trainings all the time, so they really know what to do. He needs to have confidence in them. If he is still really anxious, ask to meet with him and a counselor, so that he can hear from them about how well-trained they are. Sometimes it helps to look at someone who is with him all day in the same building, and see that they understand the fear but are confident in the school's ability to handle it. I hate flying, and every time I'm on a flight and there's turbulence or a weird noise, I look at the flight attendants. Seeing that they are calm always reassures me. Same concept.

while it sucks that there are perpetual reasons to be afraid, it's really not new. we just have newer, better, faster ways to share the fear. i know it's supposed to be 'staying informed' but in a real sense it's just more efficient fearmongering.
does your teen suffer from undue anxiety in other areas? if so, take the focus off schools and address the bigger problem. obviously a really good counselor is called for.
if his fear is related to this one specific incident, then i think it's important to talk to him like the adult-in-training that he is. acknowledge his worries and be understanding that they're not self-created or pie-in-the-sky, he has a valid reason to worry. let him talk it out without trying to tell him how to think. offer him some numbers. numbers don't impact chronic anxiety much, but they're very useful for situational anxiety. they don't dismiss his fears, they simply reframe them into a more realistic and useful pattern. over a 12 year period there was a total of 1,000 bombs placed in schools. that IS scary. don't downplay it. but hold it up against the number of schools in the nation and the time period, and the immanence of the threat dwindles to a manageable proportion.
go over the school's protocol. institute a few sensible ones of your own. if he has a good solid game plan, that should help reduce the worry.
lastly empower him with your calm confidence that he can be brave and sensible about it. let him know that's he's smart to think about it and know what to do in an emergency, but that you know he's not crippled and paralyzed with fear.
khairete
S.

Thanks also to J.B. for the context, for those of us living in other areas. I feel for your son, M. M. I know that situation would be stressful for my 14-year-old as well, and she has a couple of friends who DO have anxiety issues who would be truly worked up even if threats always turned out to be hoaxes.

This sounds like the time to involve the school counselor(s). If your son who otherwise is not anxious and likes school OK is feeling this affected, then surely other kids his age are feeling that way too. I'd contact the school counseling staff ASAP and talk with them yourself, and suggest that they might consider whether to take some action -- maybe what are called "counseling lessons" where counselors go into classrooms to do sessions on issues of concern, so that kids could talk with each other in a group setting about their worries. Or they could make plenty of time available in the counselors' office for walk-in chats, so students don't have to schedule a time with the counselor but can just turn up if they want to talk one on one. The counselors also could consider some student team-building efforts or morale-boosters for kids at a time like this--simple things like working with PTA to sponsor a short event during the school day very soon, like an indoor board games day (our PTA did that in middle school, just for fun and for making kids feel good, and it only involved one period, one day, not a huge field day kind of event). That last suggestion doesn't directly address the issue of bomb threats, of course, but it does signal that school is a place where kids can be comfortable and can rely on the adult staff to recognize that they need some stress reducers.

He will take his cue from you. If you make a big deal out of it, he will react. Back in the 60s and 70s this was a weekly occurrence we stood outside for an hour of two n went back in. Our parents never knew about it. In the 70s in NYC buildings got bomb threats. 25 years from now there will be bomb threats. Just reassure him. If he is really struggling with it, you need to get him some counseling.

We had a threat at our kids' middle school a while back. And one at our local grocery store.

My kids talked about it and then forgot about it.

Does he have anxiety issues otherwise?
There are counsellors - even at the school that can help with this. They have been trained. So that would be my first step. Just put a call in. They would have suggestions.

I don't want to downplay his fears. It can be scary.

Good luck :)

I remember "bomb threats" happening back when I was in high school in the 80s. It was usually found to be kids just trying to get the school shut down.
Can you say specifically what you mean by "all the recent bomb threats" (?) because I watch the news every day and the only recent one I'm aware of was the one in LA that affected several schools.
Oh, and if your son is feeling that anxious please make an appointment for him with the school counselor or psychologist so he can get some support.

Hi M.,

What kind of emergency preparedness plan does his school employ? My DS is also 14 and his school has policies in place, working with law enforcement, for emergency protocols. They have planned drills and unplanned drills for fire, bombs, tornados, and even if someone gets into the school with guns or other weapons. The building is secured with keypads that require codes for entry as well. I guess what I'm driving at is if his school has these measures in place that should allay some of his fears and increase his confidence that he's probably safer at school than many other places.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say, 14 year olds often don't want to go to school. Are you sure this is really a core issue for him or could it be something else that is causing his resistance? My approach is communication communication communication. Have a conversation or more with him and try to determine if there isn't another underlying issue or issues that are causing him to resist going to school and/or amplifying his fearfulness.

Lastly, I agree with B below, I can recall many a time when we were marched to the middle of the building practicing what to do in a tornado or some other threat.

I would assure him that this is nothing new. I remember there being several bomb threats at my old schools and that was 25+ years ago. The fact is we can not stop living out lives out of fear, even when that fear may have a legitimate foundation. For example after the London tube bombing I did not stop using the tube or taking my children on it, we just kept living our normal lives.

I can't imagine how scared the kids are from all this. I would probably drop the kids and home school them if that was happening in our area.

I feel so bad for the kids that are right there in this. Poor kiddo, he should be able to be a kid and not think about dying at school in a bomb.

I really think these bomb threats are the new pulling the fire alarm to get out of class. Unless I missed something, which is possible, none of them were credible, yes?

Perhaps if he looks at it as a stupid prank and not a threat it will be easier to come to terms with.