HARRISBURG, Ill. - The effort put forth to ensure student safety at Harrisburg Middle School today was actually a bit more herculean than first thought.
Superintendent Mike Gauch just advised about the alleged bomb threat:
We got word about 10 p.m. last night and once we went to the school and saw the message, we met with local and state police and at that time decided to contact the state Bomb Squad and have them come down and sweep the building with their bomb dogs.
They were all in Springfield for the President's visit and had to drive back. They arrived at 3:30 a.m.
I asked them to sweep all of our buildings even though the middle school was the only threat. I just thought for the safety of all and peace of mind for everyone we would sweep all schools.
We cancelled school only because the search was still ongoing at the time; we would need to scramble buses and I did not have the all-clear at that time.
Since that time we have received the all-clear and we will be open for regular hours tomorrow (Thursday, February 11). We will have a considerable police presence at the middle school and try and keep an officer there most of the day. We also have discussed at least having one officer at each building.
I will always err on the side of safety in these issues. We will also continue to watch video footage of the area of the school where the threat was found and attempt to find the responsible party. This is not something the district will take lightly!
Again...the school and police should be commended for the way this was handled. The disruption, while inconvenient for many parents and students, was done professionally. Good job.
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