Low-level bomb threat made to schools and airports
By Hayden Seder
Law enforcement agencies across the state of Idaho received notice last week of a nationwide bomb threat made to schools and airports. While the threat was unsupported, and both citizens and students in Blaine County were never in any real danger, many parents have expressed concern that they were not notified of the presence of a threat.
Because of the lack of validity to the threat, local law enforcement did not share information of the threat directly with the schools. The threat proved to be a hoax, but the initial warning had been that devices across the nation would detonate at 1:05 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27.
The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office received notification of the threat through an agency called the Idaho Criminal Intelligence Center, according to Blaine County Sheriff Steve Harkins. When the office receives memos of this nature, the policy is to push them out to staff immediately.
“Even though the memo said it was an unsupported bomb threat, we still take the threat seriously,” said Harkins in an interview. “We put out extra patrols and encouraged people to come forward if they saw something suspicious or unusual.”
Harkins said that extra police presence was positioned at the schools and the airport throughout the day on Nov. 27 and also on the following day.
Blaine County School District spokesperson Heather Crocker said in an interview that the district was not notified officially by local law enforcement, but learned of the threat through Dave Stellars, the district’s supervisor of student safety. As retired assistant police chief for the City of Hailey, where he served for 28 years in law enforcement, Stellars is in regular contact with local law enforcement and was made aware of the threat unofficially.
“In the view of many law enforcement agencies, the threat lacked credibility, so it was not something the local law enforcement shared directly with the schools,” Crocker said. “Local law enforcement did not contact the schools and we did not notify anyone.”
Crocker added that the district always remains vigilant in terms of safety. When the school district receives information, a threat assessment is performed according to protocol and then schools and other local agencies act accordingly.
“Parents interested in our safety measures can visit the Blaine County School District website,” she said. “We have various communication practices to notify parents of pertinent information through text, email and voicemail. Parents should always keep contact information up to date so we can reach them. If they need help, they should contact their school secretaries.”
At Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey, the Hailey Police Department patrols the perimeter and the terminal on a regular basis, which airport authorities deemed enough security in the face of the low-level threat. Additionally, the airport has Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, as well.
“It turned out to be an unsubstantiated threat, but we communicated with local law enforcement,” said Steve Guthrie, security manager of the airport. “We take security very seriously on a daily basis.”
Statewide, various law enforcement agencies made their own decisions whether to notify schools or not and how to enact protocol. When asked for a comment about the statewide threat, a spokesperson for Governor Butch Otter’s office said, “We looked into it and talked to other agencies involved and they didn’t believe it was a credible threat so we are not going to treat it as one and dignify it with a comment.”