Temple City Sheriffs arrested a 17-year old Junior on Sept. 27 on suspicion of making three bomb threats to TCHS and Longden Elementary.
At 7:10 a.m. on Sept. 27, TCHS students and staff received a phone calls notifying them that classes were cancelled because of the bomb threat and campus lockdown. The two previous bomb threats were placed to TCHS at 10:40 p.m. on Sept. 24 and to Longden Elementary at 7:50 a.m. on Sept. 25. Longden school officials evacuated their students to Oak Avenue Intermediate for parent pick-up.
The entire sheriffs’ station mobilized on Sept. 27 to search for any bombs on campus and brought in detector dogs. They concluded that the scene was clear at 9:50 a.m.
“This is an important and serious matter. The calls about bomb threats require all attention from the full police force,” Assistant Principal Mr. Terry Sholty said. “So many resources are needed, and it puts our community at risk because the attention is on our campus and not on the rest of the city.”
During the lockdown, sheriff deputies detained Senior Kevin Tang when they discovered him on campus at 9 a.m. Tang said that he did not receive the school’s phone call and that he came to class because he thought he was late for an Economics test. The sheriffs handcuffed and questioned Tang for twenty minutes, and they let him go after they determined his innocence.
“I wouldn’t say it was an emotional roller coaster in the slightest. I think I was mostly concerned that people would see me and that I would be mistaken for the culprit,” Tang said. “The cops handled that well and kept me out of sight from the media. I just had faith that I wouldn’t be wrongfully arrested so long as I cooperated with the police and answered all of their questions.”
The lockdown interrupted classes such as AP Economics and AP Government, whose students switch classes every day. Teachers pushed back tests and extended homework due dates, and the Career Center cancelled Northwestern University’s information session.
Mr. Sholty said the sheriffs’ station cannot prevent random calls about bomb threats and has no way of knowing which are true or not. Administration will take steps to educating staff in emergency procedures in preparation for a real threat.