Just this morning at 8:50, students were evacuated to the football field with their first period classes. The reason being was not revealed until 9:15 this morning, when parents of West Po students received a mass text stating that police were “investigating a bomb threat.” Students were kept on the field for a total of about three hours, during which they were provided prepackaged lunch but also had to leave bags unattended in order for police dogs to complete an inspection.
Students and teachers had varying opinions of the situation.
“I don’t think we should go back in there,” junior Andrew Hardin stated prior to 9:15. At the time, it was still unknown to students what the threat was, leading many including Hardin to believe it was a gas leak.
“I got a hella dog allergy,” senior Jake Cohn stated in reference to the dog sniffing of backpacks.
“I think they’re doing a pretty good job, everything is pretty much organized,” Ms. Sharon Smith, math teacher, said of the school’s handing of the event. While not at West Po, Smith has had to teach under a similar bomb threat scenario elsewhere, and commented that West Po’s procedure was all but the same. Because of this, she was not at all bothered by having to monitor and regroup with her class throughout the three hours.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid also praised West Potomac’s handling of the disturbance. In doing so, she also shed light on the validity and scale of the bomb threat, although the person behind it is still unknown.
“We do have two other schools [Mount Vernon and Hayfield] that have phoned in threats and in speaking with the police chief this morning, he was able to quickly determine that they were coming from the same source which was deemed not to be credible,” Reid stated. “I believe they [police] were also working with Montgomery County because they had two schools that were called yesterday as well. They’re exploring [the possibility of it being connected].”
As more information about today’s events gets released, this story will be continuously updated.
UPDATE: A full timeline of the 4/24 school day can be accessed here.
Rose • Apr 24, 2024 at 7:22 PM
It was a bit frustrating we had to find out through our parents instead of being directly informed like why do our parents know before us???
Clay Carter • Apr 24, 2024 at 6:16 PM
The teachers found out it was a bomb threat via the students who found out through their parents. They could have had better communication within the staff members. I also learned that the teachers had not been trained for this scenario, which I think should change.