Page 98 - Security Today, April 2017

ENOUGH WITH THE THREATS
By Lindsay Page
BY NOW, I’M SURE EVERYONE HAS HEARD ABOUT THE CONSTANT AND UNNECESSARY STREAM OF BOMB THREATS THAT JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTERS AND DAY SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP. AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS, ANOTHER WAVE—THE THIRD IN ONE MONTH—OF THREATS TOOK
PLACE IN CHICAGO, FLORIDA AND NEW YORK. MORE THAN 100 THREATS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN AT LEAST 17 STATES. WHEN AND HOW IS THIS GOING TO STOP, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE BEFORE THINGS GET WORSE?
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti- Defamation League said this is not “normal”, but “we will not be deterred or intimidated.”
EDITOR COMMENTARY
The Senate has also sent a letter to the Trump administration asking for help in dealing with these bomb threats. And even the FBI and Jus- tice Department’s Civil Rights Division are investigating possible connections. This makes me hopeful that the culprits will be brought to justice soon, because enough is enough.
As the mother of two small children, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to get a phone call from their school and be told to come pick them up because of a bomb threat. I know I’d be in a worried frenzy, but I’d also be mad. Mad at whoever emailed or called in such a claim. Mad at the fear that someone made my kids feel. Mad at the lost hours of school, and the time that police had to waste looking for a bomb that was (hopefully) never found.
One of our April stories by Scott McGrath covers bomb threats and how schools and other institutions can prepare for “bomb scares.” He writes that these threats can be made via phone calls, emails, verbal and writ- ten threats, and even by social media posts. It is then up to the school to open up communi- cation and get agency responders on site as quickly as possible. I think this is a very fitting article to have in this issue, and it provides an incredible amount of insight for dealing with these incidents.
These threats, which have unfortunately become a pattern for the Jewish community, have caused police departments to put emer- gency response procedures in place. So far the FBI has made one arrest in connection to the bomb threats, but authorities think he may be a “copycat.” Let’s all hope that this first arrest leads to the end of this terrible trend.
Lindsay Page is the editor of Campus Security & Life Safety magazine.
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