Ohio Schools Face Rise in Bomb Threats, Criticism for Response Plans
One security consultant says Ohio schools should conduct threat assessments before evacuating schools for bomb threats.
The vast majority of bomb threats are hoaxes, which should factor into officials' response procedures.
Some local officials in Ohio are being criticized for automatically evacuating schools that receive bomb threats.
Following a series of bomb threats that affected schools across the state, the president of a security consultant firm in Cleveland is urging schools to assess the legitimacy of the threat to determine if it is credible or not, according to the Newark Advocate.
Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, said schools should try to determine the credibility of each threat before making the decision to evacuate. Trump said oftentimes school administrators make no security assessments before clearing their schools.
On Oct. 21 alone, seven school districts reported bomb threats in the state. Similarly far-reaching bomb threats were reported on Oct. 7 and Sept. 25, although authorities did not say if any of the threats are related. The Ohio Department of Education, the FBI and Homeland security are investigating the threats.
RELATED: School Bomb Threats Have Nearly Doubled in Mass.
There is no evacuation policy in Ohio, so the decision is left to local officials, who have sometimes taken divergent paths when responding to bomb threats.
Trump says automatically evacuating schools is often playing into the hands of the people making the threats because they want to cause disruptions. He also urged schools to train a team in threat assessment and explain to students the consequences of making threats.
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