SPRINGDALE — A bomb threat Friday at Southwest Junior High School, 1807 Princeton Ave., caused officials to evacuate the school and some parents to pick up their children early, school officials said.
An anonymous call making the threat came into the school about 1:50 p.m., said Gary Compton, assistant superintendent for support services. Administrators called 911 and evacuated all students and staff next door to Shiloh Christian School, said Rick Schaeffer, district communications director.
“You have to take these kinds of things seriously,” he said.
The gym at Shiloh was full of students from Southwest, and the air was filled with their conversations as students waited to be released. Outdoor sidewalks, the parking lot and hallways were crowded with Shiloh students who were being released from their last class at the same time.
At 3:30 p.m., teachers and administrators escorted the Southwest students back to their classrooms. The schools are separated by a parking lot.
While the students were at Shiloh, Springdale police officers blocked the street in front of Southwest. The Bentonville Bomb Squad brought in a German shepherd to search the campus, but no explosive device was found, Compton said.
“If he stops, you’ve got something,” he said.
Each school in the district has a plan in case there is a bomb threat, Compton said. At Southwest, the plan is to evacuate to Shiloh.
“They did everything by the book,” he said.
Phones in the school office have caller identification capability, but the call read “anonymous” on the phone’s screen, Compton said. Sometimes there's a phone number attached to an anonymous call, and if there is, officials will use it to track down the caller.
Incidents such as bomb threats are never good because they scare parents and teachers, said Jared Cleveland, deputy superintendent for personnel.
“It interrupts the academic day tremendously,” he said.