Wake Co. schools want added penalties for bomb threats

WAKE COUNTY (WTVD) -- Wake County Superintendent Dr. James Merrill is proposing adding a fine to the list of punishments for people who call in a bomb threat or any kind of threat to a Wake County school. Especially if it results in an evacuation and a response from police and fire departments.[br /][br /]In Raleigh alone, police confirm they've responded to 14 bomb threats since March. Six of those threats were at Athens Drive High School. The most recent threat was Monday -- just a day ago -- at Millbrook High School.[br /][br /]Other schools in Wake County that have been targeted include Apex High and Heritage High in February.[br /][br /][img SRC="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/content/wtvd/images/cms/121515-wtvd-threats--small-img.jpg" ALT="school threats" WIDTH="50%" ALIGN="left" /] "It's really becoming a drain and foolish behavior on a part of young folks," Merrill said. "For me, it's tantamount to yelling fire in a theater or getting on an airplane and saying 'guess what, I've got a gun or a bomb.' There are certain things you don't joke about."[br /][br /]So on top of possible jail time and expulsion from school, Merrill asked the Wake County School Board during its policy committee meeting if it would be on board with adding a fine to a student's family to the list of punishments.[br /][br /]He pointed out that every time a school is evacuated and police and firefighters respond, that doesn't just cost a sense of safety, but also money.[br /][Ads /][br /]"When police and fire have to roll on a call, that's really a waste of community resources when they could be responding to more legitimate calls," Merrill said.[br /][br /]Board member Jim Martin agreed, "Even if it was just a prank, that costs police officers, that costs school time, that costs learning time."[br /][br /]Merrill could not give a dollar amount of that cost Tuesday night, saying it varies from situation to situation as would a fine.[br /][br /]"If you have to evacuate a school for one hour, simply multiply the lost time of teacher pay, student instructional time, just for one hour, that's a phenomenal expense."[br /][br /]For now, the push to fine is just a proposal.[br /][br /]But what if a student's family can't or won't pay the fine?[br /][twitter ID="[br /]676916322094198785" /][br /][br /]"In the simplest form you would bill the family for the student's activities. When that's not possible, there could be restitution of a different kind," Merrill said. "There could be community work, there are a number of ways to both teach a consequence of a student's action.[br /][br /]"The procedures have not been written, the inclusion of the policy is the first piece and we wanted to be certain, number one that the board supported the positions and number two, we start communicating our concerns about false threats."[br /][br /]One thing is for sure: board members say this topic won't end in the boardroom.[br /][br /]"You will be seeing this coming for approval to the board in the first two meetings in January," Martin said. "I think it's critical that we don't implement tough policy for the sake of implementing tough policy, but I think we want to get the word out that we want everyone to take safety seriously."[br /][br /][b][url HREF="http://bit.ly/1TfmsxL"]Report a Typo[/url][/b]