Middle School Bomb Hoax

Aborts The Last Day Of School

By Andrew Gorosko

A bomb scare at about 8:30 am Tuesday at Newtown Middle School on Queen Street prompted the rapid evacuation of the building and resulted in the cancellation of classes there on the last day of the school year.

Town police, state police, and the FBI converged at the school to investigate what later was described as an apparent hoax.

 At about 8:20 am, a school teacher noticed a suspicious object on the school parking lot, near the entrance to the school auditorium, said School Superintendent John Reed. At about 8:28 am, school officials alerted police of the presence of what was thought to be an “explosive device.” There were no injuries or property damage in the incident.

The suspicious object was a soda can wrapped with duct tape with a five-inch length of copper tubing extending from the can. Police have declined to disclose the nature of other components that the can contained.

 State police spokesman Sergeant J. Paul Vance said Wednesday the object “appeared to be a hoax device,” which outwardly had appeared to be a small pipe bomb.

“It probably is a hoax, but even a hoax is a crime in this state,” he said, adding that town police will be pursuing leads in the case.

The evidence will be analyzed at the state police’s forensic laboratory, Sgt Vance said.

Arriving at the school shortly after the Emergency 911 call alerted them of the problem, town police cordoned off the area near the auditorium entrance. About a dozen town police responded to the incident.

 Police were posted at the Queen Street driveway entrances to the sprawling school to prohibit entry. The incident occurred just as students were arriving for classes at the school via school buses and rides from parents. Normally congested Queen Street became even more clogged due to the incident.

About 150 of the approximately 1,200 students who attend the school had already arrived, Dr Reed said. Students who evacuated the school went to a playing field on the northeast side of the building, well away from the area where the suspicious object had been discovered on the south side of the school. School buses, which had not yet arrived at the middle school, were diverted to the high school.

Middle school students later walked to the parking lot of the former Grand Union supermarket on Queen Street, from which they were transported via school bus to the high school. Students’ parents picked them up at the high school.

Bomb Squad

After a lengthy wait, the state police bomb squad arrived at the middle school to investigate the suspicious object. State police brought a bomb-sniffing dog with them.

A state police bomb technician suited up in bulky, khaki body armor and slowly approached the suspicious object. X-ray photographs taken of the object proved inconclusive, so the bomb squad set up a “water cannon” next to the object and extended detonation cord back to the bomb squad van, which was parked about 50 yards away.

As curious onlookers watched from the distant school driveway entrance near the intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue, state police then remotely shot a burst of high pressure water at the object, causing the device to fragment on the parking lot. Such water bursts physically disrupt any electrical connections within the object.

Newtown Hook and Ladder firefighters, taking cover behind parked vehicles, stood at the ready with charged firehoses in the event that the object exploded or caused a fire.

After eliminating the threat of an explosion at the school, state police placed a remaining large piece of the object into a massive bomb receptacle, which is towed behind the bomb squad van. Under town police escort, state police transported the object to a farm field at Fairfield Hills off Queen Street, where it was detonated.

Approximately three hours elapsed between the first report of the device and its detonation at Fairfield Hills.

Aftermath

Following the suspicious object’s detonation at Fairfield Hills, Police Chief Michael Kehoe returned to the middle school.

“The preliminary indication is that it was a hoax. We’re still conducting an investigation into it…. It’s early in the investigation. We’re going to classify it as a hoax,” the police chief said.

The vast majority of students understand the serious implications of such hoaxes, Dr Reed said. Dr Reed said he was pleased with the safety measures taken to deal with the problem.

“We’ve taken all of the evidence,” Chief Kehoe said of town police obtaining the physical evidence needed to conduct an investigation into the incident.

 “Someone noticed this. They were aware. That’s very important for security and safety…The investigation is ongoing,” Chief Kehoe said.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said all proper precautions were taken in dealing with situation.

Dr Reed said it is unfortunate that such an incident had occurred on the last day of school, causing various disruptions within the school system.

Police Captain Joe Rios said, “This was a unique situation, but it was well handled by all the agencies. I’m glad it was resolved. Most importantly, no one got hurt…We treated it like it was the real thing. Caution dictates that we handle it the way we did.”

 Sergeant George Sinko and Gladys Pisani, who is the school resource officer for the middle school, will be investigating the case, the captain said.

Sgt Sinko, who was the incident commander, said Wednesday that Officer Pisani is pursuing leads in the case. As the school resource officer, Officer Pisani is attached to the police department detective bureau.

Town police will be sending physical evidence in the case to state police for analysis, Sgt Sinko said.

Mr Rosenthal said situations such as the one at the middle school are unfortunate because they frighten the public. “It disrupts the community…It’s a bad prank,” he said.

“I’m sure whoever did this will be handled appropriately,” he added. Police and firefighters acted quickly and acted well in dealing with the problem, he said.

After the bomb scare disrupted classes at the middle school, there was not much point in having students return to classes there on what was to have been a half-day session, he said. If students had returned to classes for a time, all that they would have discussed would have been the incident, he said.

The first selectman said that due to the nature of the school system’s school bus transportation system, in which one set of buses has multiple duty for all schools, an incident at one school can cause a cascading set of problems at other schools.

Dr Reed said such incidents must be taken seriously, noting that the matter involved the presence of a suspicious object, not simply a telephoned threat.