Parents Hear From TCA Principal On Bomb Threat Incident

Many TCA parents demanded answers from school leaders about how this week’s incidents were handled.

A town hall-type board meeting was held Friday afternoon in which high school leaders took parents through a timeline of what happened.

That was followed by several dozen questions about the kind of training those in charge of handling the situation had been through, what they did to keep kids safe, and why they felt there was no threat to kids while they were at school from Monday through the time police arrived on campus Thursday morning.

John Robillard, a TCA parent who has a child that was evacuated from her portable classroom says communication from the school needs to be improved but feels comfortable sending his child back to class.

“I think for now I am (not worried) because I think the sense of alert and caution is going to be very high for now,” Robillard said.

TCA high school campus principal Hugh DiPretore said two open propane tanks were found after school let out Monday. Once they were turned off and it was determined that the propane had dissipated quickly, attention turned to securing the nearly empty school building and looking for any other problems.

DiPretore said several “safety walks” through the campus turned up no other issues. A review of video camera footage of the room where the propane tanks were found determined only one person was responsible for the problem.

School leaders said the boy was stopped before returning to school again, interviewed by school leaders and banned from classes when they resumed on Wednesday after a snow day Tuesday.

DiPretore said TCA leaders contacted School District 20 security leaders on Wednesday about getting that student expelled and were told representatives from D-20 would be on campus Thursday. Police were also called to collect evidence in the expulsion process according to DiPretore.

Police took over from there, calling in the fire department and the bomb squad upon inspecting the evidence. Besides the two propane tanks, the evidence included a spent flare, a bag with a 6-ounce bottle of rubbing alcohol, two firecrackers, two pair of boxer shorts, according to DiPretore, who indicated that the bag, propane tanks and spent flare were all found in different locations.

He added that once police arrived to the TCA campus they told administrators to keep a normal schedule. Some kids were moved though because it was determined they were too close to police activity.

DiPretore said that all safety procedures they had taken since finding the propane tanks were applauded by responding officers, who added that the police went the extra step of checking not only the expelled student’s locker but his friends’ lockers as well.

After several questions by parents asking why police were called only after D-20 leaders arrived on campus, DiPretore said safety leaders were notified of the situation on Wednesday and were never given any directive to call for help or evacuate the building.

A review of TCA policies and procedures is underway, according to school leaders.