A man made a prank phone call to Gilroy High School claiming he
was annoyed with the homecoming fireworks last Friday and had
planted a bomb at the school.
A man made a prank phone call to Gilroy High School claiming he was annoyed with the homecoming fireworks last Friday and had planted a bomb at the school.
About 10:45 a.m., the high school’s office coordinator Lee Anne Nelson received an anonymous phone call from an adult male.
“I really liked the fireworks on Friday, but it’s nothing compared to the bomb that will go off today,” the man said.
He then hung up.
School staff said the man was “annoyed” with the school’s fireworks display Friday evening during the halftime of Gilroy’s homecoming football game. However, school staff did not specify that the man’s comment about liking the fireworks was sarcastic.
Nelson immediately found Assistant Principal Stefani Garino who tracked down Principal Marco Sanchez. Sanchez was in a class at the time, Garino said. Administrators connected with Gilroy police’s School Resource Officer Cherie Somavia, who was already on campus.
“We had a plan within less than five minutes,” Garino said.
With the help of Somavia and another Gilroy police officer, every campus supervisor and school administrator swept the campus, searching the athletic fields, classrooms, incoming packages, parking lots, garbage cans, treetops and roofs, Garino said.
“We checked everything you could possibly check,” she said.
After the search turned up no evidence of a bomb, Sanchez sent an e-mail to the entire staff notifying them of the false alarm and then advised all teachers over the public address system to check their e-mail accounts. Administrators visited classes with substitute teachers in person, Garino said.
However, classes were not interrupted and many children did not know about the incident until after it was deemed a prank, students said. The school was not put on lock-down.
About noon, the school sent out an electronic phone message to parents.
“The search was pretty comprehensive,” the computer-generated voice said. “No evidence of a bomb has been found at this time. We will continue to remain vigilant of any suspicious activity or items … At this time, there is no cause for concern.”
Garino said many students called or texted their parents anyway.
Sanchez later sent out a phone message recorded in his own voice and an accompanying e-mail assuring parents “that everything is fine at Gilroy High School. Your students are safe.”
On the message, he apologized if the previous, computer-generated message caused concern. If administrators and police had turned up real evidence of a bomb, they would have taken the next step and evacuated the campus, Garino said.
“Most of the time the threats are not real,” said Garino, who’s experienced only three similar threats in her nine years as a school administrator. “They’re just looking to cause a sensation and get everyone upset.”
