On March 23 at around 10:13 AM, in the middle of third period, the SHS fire drill rang.
Like so many times before, students filed out, never suspecting that a simple fire drill would become so much more, and eventually consume almost the en- tire school day. Earlier in the day during home- room–at around 9:55 AM–Sarah Saxena ’16 excused herself to use the second floor girls’ bathroom near the new wing and discovered a message scrawled on the tiles of the back wall of the handicapped stall:
“This place goes up at 10:30 AM.” Saxena to a picture of the graffiti and proceeded to her third period class with physics teacher Vanessa Blood. “I was the first one to arrive, so I showed the photo to Blood and she told me to go to Griffin,” noted Saxena.
From around 10:00 to 10:03 AM she spoke with Assistant Principal Dr. Chris Griffin, then returned to class. Although Saxena did not see it, there was another message in the same stall on the opposite wall that said, “My bomb is planted and ready to kill.” Rachel Bochner ’15 had seen this mes- sage on Thursday, March 19 but hadn’t acted on it at the time other than taking a photo. “Mainly I thought it was some- one making a really really bad joke, so I didn’t think much of it until today when it became apparent that we weren’t just having a fire drill. During the drill… I showed a few teachers and then was asked to show a police officer as well,” she stated. At around 10:13 AM, the fire drill rang and students were evacuated.
As students filed out into the cold, and were later made to move further away from the school, it became evident that this drill was more serious. Soon, whispers be- gan of a bomb threat. Most stayed calm, focusing on keeping warm and huddling in groups with friends. Many students had either their phones or their coats; few were lucky enough to have both. “There were a lot of people out- side, actually, in short sleeves or long sleeves with no coat,” said Shannon Cover ’15. Those lack- ing both used friends’ phones to call parents so they could drop off jackets. “Well I was outside in a T-shirt and I just borrowed my friend’s phone ‘cause I was so cold and I’m really glad that [my dad] came,” stated Matt Lefkowitz ’16.
Within 45 minutes to an hour, district buses had picked up almost all SHS students and dropped them off at Scarsdale Middle School. Around half an hour passed before Griffin addressed students in Gyms A/B, stating, “There was written in a bathroom stall, a threat. The police are now at the high school and they’re doing a scan of the entire building to make sure it’s safe.” After quieting down some murmurs, he further noted that, “We [the administra- tion] have to do our due diligence and make sure you’re safe.”
During the next thirty minutes, students talked, slept, braided one another’s hair, and even got out a computer to start watching Grease (in one case). Griffin made a second announcement at around 12:20 PM. “The police say we can return to the high school to our gymnasium only at this point… In about twenty minutes we will start evacu- ating everybody from this gym up onto buses with faculty members,” he informed students and faculty. At around 12:50 PM students inside Gyms A/B got onto buses. Along the way, some were lucky enough to receive sandwiches, wraps or bagels, while others received water bottles, Snapple and/or potato chips.
By around 1:30 PM, the last bus had arrived at SHS and all students were moved to Gyms III/IV where Principal Kenneth Bonamo made an announcement to the entire student body and faculty. He began by offering a sincere thanks to students for their cooperation, “and especially to [the] teachers and all faculty and staff who have been extraordinary in getting us safely from one school to another and then back again,” he praised. Bonamo continued by informing students that there would be a seventh period class–unsurprisingly, he was booed by many of the stu- dents present–and that they would have to return to their third period classes to reclaim their belongings before moving on to their seventh period class.
Shortly before 6:00 PM, Bonamo sent out an email to students and families assuring the Scarsdale community that the bomb threat was not credible. “Members of the Scarsdale Police and Fire Departments, as well as the County Bomb Squad, were on site for a good part of the day and did a thorough and swift job in sweeping the building and returning us to safety,” he noted. Students have been encouraged to speak to parents or youth outreach workers should this experience have shaken or traumatized them in any way. Moreover, students who were unable to take or finish a test due to the evacuation will be given the op- portunity to make up their exams on Wednesday April 1. All that remains is for the community to “move forward undaunted” and investigate this incident so that those responsible can be brought to justice.
by Maroon Staff
