MEXICO – When students arrive at Mountain Valley Middle School on Monday morning, they will find some strange looking things installed just outside of each bathroom.
Video cameras that record who goes in and who goes out, 24-hours-a-day, are being used to SAD 43 administration identify those may be leaving bomb threat notes in the bathrooms.
After three bomb threats since the beginning of classes just a few weeks ago, the administration decided to be proactive. Each time, a note has been found in the boys’ or girls’ bathroom, usually written on the walls of a stall.
“This has been an ongoing issue for several years,” said Superintendent Jim Hodgkin.
The cameras, which cost about $3,000, were purchased with buildings and grounds funds.
In addition, students became subject to searches of their gym bags and purses on Tuesday, Sept. 23, before they could go to class. Backpacks were banned at the same time, right after the third bomb threat.
“I didn’t want to do all this, but we can narrow down the number (of alleged perpetrators). I don’t like punishing all the students for the actions of a few,” said Hodgkin.
But something had to be done, he said. Each time a bomb threat has been made, classes were disrupted, which interferes with the learning process.
Students are no longer being sent home when a bomb threat is reported. Instead, there is a lockdown while administrators and local emergency personnel search the school for evidence of a real threat. Nothing so far has been turned up. If further evidence shows a greater chance of a real threat, students will be ushered outside to wait while the school is searched.
Hodgkin said if the cameras had been in place last Monday, the number of students observed entering a bathroom would have been narrowed down because of the time the note was reported. All those between 7:20 and 8:45 a.m. would have been observed.
All doors except the main entrance are locked during the school day. And all visitors must report to the main office before they can enter any other portion of the school.
eadams@sunjournal.com
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