Waltham's Recent Bomb Threats

It's definitely not just Waltham.

Sadly, it's the world we live in. The internet allows irresponsible people to disrupt society by threatening violence of all kinds. The best plan is to have a plan. A text code that means a family member is safe, a safe place to meet in case of an evacuation that the whole family knows, cell phones that are charged but put away during the school day with very strict rules for kids that the cell phone is for emergencies only, etc.

But most of all, what parents can do is instruct their kids in internet safety. They can teach their kids about the cost of a hoax bomb threat. It takes law enforcement away from real emergencies while they search for bombs that don't exist. School is disrupted, court proceedings are cancelled, surgeries are put off and patients sometimes have to wait while a hospital is cleared. It's not funny, it's not harmless. It's costly on many levels.

Here in Hawaii we've been told to prepare for possible nuclear fallout from a North Korean bomb. Most likely there won't be a nuclear bomb that reaches us, but there very well may be nuclear fallout and radiation that travels on the tides or wind, and possibly tsunamis or earthquakes. We've been issued a warning that we should prepare for up to 14 days inside in a secure room with plenty of supplies. Each month on the first weekday, they test a tsunami warning siren and wow is it loud. But for the next two months, there will be no test warning. The authorities have said that the next siren we hear will be a siren to announce an actual nuclear event, and we will have 12 to 15 minutes to get into place. There are no bomb shelters, and even if there were, 12 minutes is not enough time.

So, we're prepared, and we have our emergency kit assembled, and our spot in our house chosen, but we're not living in fear. We're going about our day, while remaining alert and smart.

I think that's all anyone can do. Teach our kids, stay prepared, and live peacefully.

Oh, probably. I hear on the news about local schools have a lockdown now and then. I usually just tune it out because so far it's never been the school one of my kids attend, because there wouldn't be a thing I could do about it anyway (Except show up. That I WOULD do!) and because it is almost always a joke or prank or just something stupid.

I live in the state capital, and over the summer the police had to shut down the capital because there was an envelope with a white, powdery substance that needed to be investigated. It really was unfortunate for those in side the building, because they had to shut down the ventilation systems as a safety precaution, and it was over 90 degrees outside! It turned out to be nothing.

Who hasn't?
A little while ago the Navy bases around here had a spat of bomb threats.
A local 16 yr old high school student was arrested last night on 4 felony counts due to threats made on social media about his school and illegal access to firearms (he videoed himself shooting things).

It's nothing new.
In the 60's my school was evacuated and we (this was 1st grade) were standing in 2 feet of snow until we could walk across a field to stay in the high school auditorium while authorities cleared our school after a bomb threat.

Unfortunately social media and internet have made these things more common.
It's great to be cautious but you clear the threat and life goes on.
Try not to let it alarm you.

The high school I worked at had various levels of lock down and we had drills.
Fire, tornado, intruder, etc - there's a procedure for everything!
Sometimes we were required to close the gates and hide in our dry storage area - door locked lights out.
They usually ran the dogs then - drug checks - and they sometimes found stuff.

I'm not far from you, and I've watched the local news reports on these bomb threats, agonizing for all of you and especially the school children.

We had one in Westboro, and of course you heard about the Newton and Worcester JCCs receiving bomb threats. They didn't get as many as you did, but it was part of a nationwide series of threats against Jewish institutions so we felt the overwhelming sense of violation that I imagine you are feeling.

And reading Elena's post below breaks my heart. It reminds me of the drills we had in elementary school when we were kids, fearing a Russian nuclear attack. And we had bomb threats when I was in high school during the turbulence of the late 60s.

I think, when and if they catch these perpetrators, even if they are teens, there need to be very strict penalties. Parents pleading that their kid won't get into college or kids just being assigned to write an essay on why a bomb threat is a bad idea - that's not cutting it in my book. But I also recognize that catching the perpetrators isn't that easy.

My heart goes out to you and I hope this stops soon. But it's everywhere.

In the 70s every other day in NYC office buildings!

we get reports of weekly shootings but in the last several years there was one bomb threat. a kid wanted out of class so they called in a threat. and got caught after nothing was found.

No, we haven't had any bomb threats in our area. You're not far from Boston. And a lot is going on there....

I'm sorry you are going through this.

My town, and specifically the university, had a huge problem with this several years ago. It was terrible, everyone felt so badly for the students. A person (or persons) kept sending bomb threats - over 100 of them over the course of a semester - mostly to student dorms in the middle of the night, but also to administrative buildings during working hours. It was incredibly disruptive especially to the students who couldn't get a full night's sleep. There were never any bombs found, but of course the threats can't be ignored. The local police ended up calling in the FBI to track the source of the threats. I don't know how it was resolved, but after that 1 semester, the threats stopped.

So, sorry to say, it is not just your town. If your town doesn't have the resources or technology to track down the perpetrator, they might need to call in outside help.