School Officials Wait To Notify Police About School Bomb Threat Until Afterwards

Sometime on Tuesday, Oct. 15, a Walsh Intermediate school girl was surprised to find a disturbing statement inside a bathroom stall at her school. Written on a toilet paper dispenser were the words: ​“Walsh is in for a bombing tomorrow at 2 p.m.” Above the writing, a police report says, were a series of numbers: “/15/13.”

The girl, parents said later, did the right thing. She informed her guidance counselor of the words she found inside the stall that day. When those words were written remains unclear because the day before was Columbus Day and school was closed. The girl and two of her friends, all in the 8th grade, were in the bathroom at the same time. 

While the girl acted swiftly, it turns out that top school officials did not. According to the police report of the incident, obtained by the Branford Eagle, Schools Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez did not report the threat to the school’s youth officer until the following day, Oct., 16 ​“at 1530 hours” (3:30 p.m.), 90 minutes after the so-called bomb deadline passed.

In addition the ​“graffiti,” as Hernandez described the sentence, was wiped clean, although a photo was first taken by Robin Goeler, the school principal. The Eagle requested the police report and received it because the investigation is essentially closed. ​“At this time, there are no suspects in this incident and it unknown when it actually occurred,” the police report said.

Hernandez told the Eagle and explained to parents at last month’s Board of Education meeting that in his view the sentence on the toilet paper dispenser did not constitute ​“a viable threat. At no time were any students in danger. That is a very, very key point and the assessment was concurred by the Branford Police Department.” The police report ultimately labeled the offense as ​“criminal mischief,” thereby placing it in a minor criminal category. 

The so-called assessment and concurrence came after the threat passed and no bomb went off. ​“In hindsight we agreed,” Chief Kevin Halloran said in an interview. But he observed the police had to engage in a ​“retrospective” inquiry because they were notified after the event. 

Location, location, location

Hernandez said he came to his conclusions based on his experience and after discussion with Goeler. The location of the threat was a major factor – it was not pinned to a doorway in full view, for example. It was concealed in an odd place. ​“I am not here to debate that issue. I can understand your level of upset,” Hernandez said.

According to the police report, the statement about the bomb threat was removed from the toilet paper dispenser, but not before Principal Goeler took a photograph of it. The police were later given a copy of the photo. While there are surveillance video cameras in the school, the entrance to the bathroom in question is not monitored, Goeler later told the police, the report says. 

After Hernandez belatedly informed Detective Arthur Ferris, the school’s youth officer, of the bomb threat, Ferris informed Chief Halloran and Lt. Art Kohloff, the chief of detectives. The chief said: ​“My first question to Detective Ferris was: did you reinforce that they (school officials) call us in the future.” In the police report, Ferris wrote that he recommended to Principal Goeler that he ​“contact police if any similar incidents happen in the future or if any further information is developed concerning this incident.”

In the past police and school officials have worked closely on a number of student-related criminal cases, Halloran said.

Copycat Crimes An Issue

But this time Hernandez seemed to be more concerned about copycat crimes, especially given the number of them in the public schools across the nation.

“My biggest concern would be that if we make this into too big of an issue, and I am not minimizing it, than we might get into a position where we have copycats. That is a very real phenomenon in the public schools,” Hernandez said at the meeting.

“There were lessons learned. I have been very, very transparent about the entire incident,” he added.

To avoid the copycat possibility, he and the principal apparently decided to act on their own, an action that led to serious parental concerns, especially because the police, who are trained to handle these types of cases, were not in the loop. 

Parents learned about the incident from their kids. (There were two other girls in the bathroom besides the girl who found the writing.) Then at a recent PTA meeting parents questioned a guidance counselor about the school’s procedures and inquiries into the event. They were told it would take more than six months to get answers about policies. Parents said they were upset by that answer because the issue centered on safety. They decided to attend the Board of Education meeting. One by one they spoke to the members of the Board of Education and to Hernandez, while public television cameras rolled. 

It was during the BOE meeting that Hernandez stepped up to the plate, admitting that communicating the event to parents was his responsibility. He acknowledged his flawed reaction. ​“The handling of the communication piece clearly could have been improved,” he told parents at the BOE meeting. ​“If we upset anybody I apologize for that. I want to hear your concerns going forward.”

At the meeting one father (see top photo) asked Hernandez what his qualifications were to determine if it was or was not a bomb threat. He said the police should have been called.

The superintendent described the words on the toilet paper dispenser as graffiti, and while graffiti may occasionally be written as a sentence, typically it is incomprehensible scribbling along with designs that are scrawled in public places. 

New BOE chair Michael Krause agreed that an immediate inquiry was required into the school’s practices. He said a BOE subcommittee would begin an inquiry right away on the policies in place and report back to the parents.

Krause told the parents that the communication with them ​“was not appropriate.” He said there were 3,200 students in the district and that he was concerned about all them. ​“We can’t change what occurred, but we can learn from it and improve it. And we will do it,” he told the parents. 

The unintended consequence of the failure to inform the police of the event has been a renewed effort on the part of the town’s emergency first responders and the key leaders of the schools and Hernandez to review the event at their Redi meeting this week. This is a combined safety meeting involving key school, fire, police and other town players.

Capt. Geoffrey Morgan told the Eagle the program was started under former Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Halligan. ​“Our meetings have morphed into continuing assessments of lessons learned.” In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, whose first anniversary is this week, ​“the walls have broken down. We can sit in a room and we can communicate with principals. For the first time during a crisis, a police officer can talk by walkie-talkie to a school principal. We have learned many lessons.”

Chief Halloran said that after the Sandy Hook shootings, ​“we have had our patrol officers make random stops at schools. They are getting out and walking around the schools so that the kids and educators get used to seeing the officers in the schools. They need to learn where everything is. We have had lock down drills. We are working closely with the superintendent on security.”

Meanwhile, the police who have looked at the photo of the handwriting on the toilet paper dispenser and have attempted after the fact to analyze the motive and intent of the writer are thinking this was the act of a kid and not a legitimate terrorism threat.

“It may be a lot like the kids who used to pull a fire alarm to get out of school,” Morgan said.

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