Bombs Away

Teenagers will make up just about any excuse to get out of a day at school.

Faking sickness has become almost textbook. The most popular means always seems to be ‘Didn’t-do-my-homework-itis.’ But some kids take to faking bomb threats to avoid that day’s classes.

Such was the case at Council Rock South High School in Holland, Pa., where a 16-year-old phoned in a phony bomb threat this month because he said he didn’t feel like going to school.

Ryan Miller, the student who will be tried as a juvenile, has incidents of ‘harassment’ and ‘disorderly conduct’ already stamped onto his personal record.

Now he can add ‘potential terrorist’ to that rapsheet. Though the student apologized for his actions, the phoned-in threat cannot be taken lightly.

In our society, threats like these are no laughing matter. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 set off more than just a war. They have made Americans twitch at the prospect of anything having to do with terrorism.

In Miller’s case, Holland Police and local Homeland Security officials responded to the scene, showing that resources are in place to protect. But childish acts like Millers cannot be wholly prevented.

Miller was found to be responsible for the Nov. 8 closings of Council Rock high schools after police successfully traced calls to his home phone. His call came just one day after untraced calls closed the very same schools.

It also came a week after Neshaminy High School in nearby Langhorne shut its doors on grounds of a similar threat.

Clearly the high school students of Bucks County don’t take the words ‘bomb threat’ seriously. Calling in a bomb threat to a school is a grave danger.

The school district’s superintendent Mark J. Klein said so in a report in the “Philadelphia Inquirer” last weekend. Klein said safety was maintained, but education was not.

“You can’t cost out the most important thing – we lost a school day,” Klein said. “That means 4,200 kids weren’t educated.”
Bomb threats are nothing new at Temple, either. The Student Center was cleared in April and May 2005 when bomb threats were phoned into the building.

In those instances, the proper authorities were called in and the situation was rectified. In America, we’ve handled anthrax that showed up in the mail in late 2001. We’ve handled student shootings like that at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. And we will handle people like Ryan Miller.