Bomb Threat Interrupts High School’s Day Phone Call Believed To Be Prank, But Search Of School Carried Out

A bomb threat on the second day of school sent more than 550 Bonners Ferry High School students scurrying outside Wednesday.

A man telephoned the high school about 7:50 a.m. and told a secretary he had planted a large amount of explosives in the building.

The caller wanted $20,000 to be put in a brown paper bag and dropped at a local store or he said he would blow up the school, Police Chief Dave Kramer said.

The threat was a hoax, but it disrupted school for more than an hour while authorities and teachers searched the school.

“Just by what the caller said, we suspected it was a prank, but you can never take anything like this lightly,” Kramer said. “The call is still being taken very seriously, and we will aggressively try and find out who was responsible.”

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was notified after the threat was made. ATF agents did not go to the school but gave Kramer advice on how to search the building.

The prankster could face felony charges, Kramer said.

Police arrived at the school minutes after the bomb threat was made and helped move students a safe distance away into a field behind the school.

“The students were real cooperative and nobody got too excited,” said Assistant Principal Tom Wofford. “But it was frustrating and a terrible waste of time.”

Neither the city nor Boundary County has a dog trained to sniff out explosives, so all lockers had to be searched by hand. With the school year only two days old, Wofford said, there also were lots of unpacked boxes to be checked.

Authorities suspect the hoax was the work of a student who was not happy about the start of the school year.

“Even when we know it’s a prank, a call like that makes everyone a little nervous,” Kramer said.

, DataTimes