Bulletin E-Edition:
A member of the Oregon State Police bomb squad approaches a suspicious container at the front of Culver Elementary School on Wednesday morning during the second bomb threat of the week. On Tuesday, a note was taped to the elementary school’s door threatening that a bomb was hidden in the building.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
2nd bomb threat in Culver temporarily closes schools
Bomb squad declares suspicious package a hoax
By Lauren Dake / The Bulletin
Published: December 04. 2008 4:00AM PSTCULVER — From where Ty Merrill works — at Culver’s only gas station — he could see it all.
About 6:50 a.m., officers from Oregon State Police and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office cordoned off the area surrounding Culver Elementary School and began combing the grounds.
Not long after, Merrill watched as groups of students made their way to school on foot, saw the yellow tape, and turned around.
“I’m here at 5:30 in the morning, I saw the first cops arrive,” Merrill said. “I just said, ‘Not again.’”
For the second straight day, officers responded to a bomb threat at Culver Elementary School. On Tuesday, it was a note taped to the door threatening that a bomb was in the building and would go off on Friday. Elementary school students were evacuated, but officers cleared the area by about 9:30 a.m. and the students were back in their classrooms.
On Wednesday, what officials found was what was described as a “suspicious container” near the front entrance of the elementary school by a maintenance worker. Due to their proximity to one another, all three Culver schools — elementary, middle and high school — were closed for the day. The OSP bomb squad flew from Salem into the Madras airport and arrived on the scene at about 10 a.m. A bomb-sniffing Department of Homeland Security dog also assisted officers in clearing the area, according to Jefferson County Undersheriff Jim Adkins. Close to an hour later, officials declared the bomb a hoax.
Culver residents and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office are offering a $500 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible.
Tristan Fiscus, 10, a fourth-grader at the school, said he saw the police surrounding the building on his way to school.
“It’s weird,” Tristan said. “You’re on the way to school and you see cops and you’re like, what happened? It’s scary because (a bomb threat has) never happened, and I never thought it would happen, because Culver is just a little community.”
All the students who made it to school before police closed off the area were sent to the gymnasium and eventually home.
“The elementary school students were not allowed to go home unless a contact was made with their parents or an older sibling,” Stefanie Garber, the Culver Elementary School principal, said.
Contacting parents was up to the individual schools’ principals, Superintendent Linda Florence said.
“We advertised it on the radio station saying the district was closed,” Florence said. “It’s the same if it was a snow day or a late day, the only information we give is over the radio or TV … and we have no authority over the students who don’t make it to the school.”
So for the groups of students who walked to school and turned around before entering, their parents may not have known they were sent home for the day, Florence said.
“We don’t have the capability to call every parent,” Florence said, saying the district does not have enough manpower to make more than 700 calls in a short period of time and pointed out that teachers and administrators weren’t allowed into their buildings.
Merrill said he was disappointed that he didn’t receive a phone call from the district and said he felt lucky he could observe what was happening.
“When it’s my children, I want to be informed,” he said. “They need to let us know.”
Florence said although she doesn’t expect the situation to happen again, she would consider a quicker way to reach more parents.
“I would certainly look more into how to contact parents,” she said. “The only way we would be able to is if we had a phone calling system and they are quite expensive and you don’t reach parents at work.”
Officers from Oregon State Police and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office declined to say if they had any suspects.
Florence said if it turned out to be a student, the consequence could be expulsion.
If you have any information, call the Sheriff’s Office at 541-475-6520.
Lauren Dake can be reached at 541-419-8074 or at ldake@bendbulletin.com.
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