The kid who cried 'bomb'
March 26, 2013
The tenth bomb threat so far this school year in Bonners Ferry was reported March 19, 2013. This has been the most ridiculous school year yet for bomb threats. These are extremely serious situations and shouldn’t be taken lightly, although, in my own opinion, I believe some people in our little community are becoming almost immune, treating them as if it were the story of the boy who cried wolf.

I received a call Monday, March 18, from my five year old daughters’ kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Alverez, at around 2:35 p.m.

The call seemed to have come from a personal cell phone. She asked me if I was going to be home so I could greet my daughter, Amelia, when she got off the bus, or if I would prefer to pick her up from the school, due to an early release day.

I was confused as to why they were getting out early, but I told Mrs. Alverez that I was home and to please send Amelia on the bus.

When Amelia got home at around 3:30 p.m., I asked her why they were let out early and she replied, “I don’t know.”

So I left it at that and went to the store for some groceries, where I was informed by the friendly cashier, who also works at Valley View Elementary School, that there was another bomb threat.

Usually, the threats are scribbled on bathroom stalls, like the one found on January 15, 2013, in the girl’s bathroom at the middle school. The Bonners Ferry Herald reports, “Several notes were written in the girl’s bathroom indicating a threat, but no specific time was given.”

Another incident before that on October 23, 2012, at the high school, “The third time in as many years,” said Superintendent, Dick Conley. The Herald reports, “A janitor was told at about 8:10 a.m. that, ‘Bomb 3:30' was found on a restroom wall, according to Boundary County Sheriff’s Office press release.”
According to Conley, the message was even misspelled. saying “Bom 3:30.”

But this time the threat was called in to 911 dispatch at 10:05 a.m. and the caller didn’t specify which school was going to blow up. Valley View Elementary wasn’t notified about this until about noon.

Yet, I didn’t get a call until 2:30 in the afternoon?

Yes, these threats have been idle, but who is to say when the real thing may happen? That was a four hour gap from when the call was placed into 911 until the evacuation.

As this information set in, my heart sank.

I thought, “What if this one was real? Anything could have happened in that long four hours.”

I took my daughter out of school for the remainder of the week.

The Bonners Ferry High School has tried many different ways to get to the bottom of this. After the third and fourth bomb threats November 5-6, the school decided to place monitors outside both bathrooms and require that students also have to sign in and out of class to use the restroom.

Even then, another threat was reported on November 12 and again on January 15.

The bomb threat in February gave some locals’ hearts a jump start.

On the same day that a bomb threat was turned into police, Bob Graham, the Boundary County Emergency Management Incident Commander, was planning a controlled detonation of two vintage hand grenades with a military bomb disposal unit from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane.

The grenades were found in Moyie Springs and turned in to police by a woman who was clearing out a shed on her property. The crew was just setting up at the county landfill, ready to add seven and a half pounds of their own explosives to demolish the two grenades, when the call came in February 19 about another bomb threat at the high school.

Graham went in and helped check and clear the school and was finished by 11:30 a.m. The children returned to school and Graham returned to the landfill to finish the demolition.

The blast was set off just before 1:00 p.m.

Locals from all over heard the blast, and were fearful because most of them had heard about the bomb threat at the school and they thought for sure this time was it.

Graham expressed his concerns, “We’re a laughing stock. So far, all the threats have been idle, but what happens if someone decides to really plant a bomb? It really worries me that we’ll become complacent and miss the real one because of all the idle threats.”

The scheduled blast was unannounced to the public so it wouldn’t spread fear across the town or leave locals to assume the government was “up to something." One person said, “usually EOD teams keep a low profile, the fear of ‘explosives’ of the population is usually worse than the boom, lol, plus, if it is advertised, half of us would show up to watch.”

Newsbf.com reported “while they typically don't like to give away the location where such detonations take place, the cat was out of the bag even before the blast occurred; with Monday a holiday, people were lined up within minutes of the gate being closed, and word passed via cellphone and social media that the bomb squad was at the landfill, setting off a spate of worried rumors.”

The seventh bomb threat on March 4 was found in the men’s locker room at the high school. It was one day after a suspect was suspended from school, and after a school wide assembly had taken place to address the issue.

Due to the threat occurring around lunch time, teachers waited for the students to return so they could be evacuated.

Then, what do you know, another bomb threat strikes again on March 7, which led to the schools’ decision to close the campus, meaning students can no longer leave for lunch without permission beginning March 11, 2013.

Still, the threats continued.

On March 18, the threat came in via 911 dispatch at 10:05 a.m., threatening to “blow up the school," and since no single school was specifically targeted, all five schools in the district were closed.

This was the day these ridiculous threats affected all of the schools.

And again, another 911 dispatch call for a bomb threat came in on March 19, just one day after the last threat, AGAIN! But the Superintendent, Dick Conley, felt this threat was non credible due to the fact it was called in just like the last one, plus, the ongoing investigation, plus, all of its recent occurrences, therefore, nothing was done about this one.

It wasn’t ignored, it was simply deemed “non credible,” so no immediate action was required at the time.

Well, I’m sure glad these threats are idle so far. I’m also relieved to not have my daughter in school this week, and I’m not yet sure when she will be returning. It doesn’t help my thoughts when I begin to think about the ‘Sandy Hook’ incident. Although it is highly unlikely to happen here, as parents, we will never be too cautious.


Just think, if some strange, crazy newcomer came waltzing in to our little town, knowing or even not knowing any of the current events, and decides to bomb a school.

I would sure hope and pray that we will still immediately take action, evacuate as soon as possible, and not just "assume" that the call was from the same kid crying wolf all this time.