Fremont County schools discuss protocols following generic bomb threat Tuesday

FREMONT COUNTY, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) -

We’re learning more about the bomb threats that were found not legitimate, but were sent nationwide. Wyoming Catholic College, located in Lander, was the recipient of one of the emails.

President of Wyoming Catholic College, Glenn Arbery stated that although it was fairly clear the email was a hoax from the first read, but “In any case we had to take it seriously, we contacted the police, they contacted the FBI. We were already evacuating our building when we were advised, that is in fact, what we should be doing. We were asked to notify adjacent buildings and businesses, which we did.” The college doesn’t resume normal classes until February 1st, but there were still staff working on campus. The president said they waited outside until they were given the all clear from law enforcement to re-enter the building.

Fremont County School District 25 in Riverton said their very first protocol in any threat is to first notify the school resource officers, who then get in contact with local law enforcement as necessary. In the threat situation on January 26th, the schools went into a stay-put situation until local law enforcement cleared in and outside every building. The superintendent and the crisis response coordinator from the district work on the school side of notifications.

Dr. Joanne Andre-Flanagan, superintendent of Fremont County School District #25 stated, “We step out and decide who we need to notify, do we need to get ahold of other buildings, when do we need to get ahold of them, what information do they need, so we coordinate that response. If we would have had to evacuate buildings and relocate students, then we would manage all that from this end, working with the bus garage, working with families to know where the reunification centers are at so they can pick kids up. Fortunately we didn’t have to do any of that.”

In the case of a threat, FCSD 25 schools encourage parents to keep an eye out for information coming from your school’s social media pages, and local media sources.

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