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Make bomb hoax a felony? Photo by Jim Craven Ashland police Capt. Mike DeCapua talks to Ashland High School teachers before they return to the school building Friday. Some teachers volunteered to go back inside and search after a telephoned deadline passed. That's what Ashland mayor wants after scare empties school By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- Mayor Cathy Shaw called for tougher penalties for bomb threats after a telephone call shut down Ashland High School Friday. No bomb was found. "I'd like to make any threat like this a felony," said Shaw, whose son attends Ashland High School. "If we can't do it locally, I'll do whatever it takes to pursue it on a statewide basis." School officials decided students will make up for Friday's freedom with extra hours tacked onto the end of the school year. "It's sad because everyone is penalized for one person's ... bad judgment ... even the students who were willing to be here," said Principal Julie Reynolds. Friday's incident began at 8:25 a.m. when a young male called KOBI Channel 5. The bomb threat was the first anyone could could remember at an Ashland school since the 1970s. "There's something you need to know," Police Chief Scott Fleuter quoted the young man as saying. "There's four bombs at Ashland High School that are set to detonate at 10 a.m." The fact that Friday was the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield added validity to the threat. The KOBI employee who heard the threat called police, who called Reynolds. After discussing the situation with police, Reynolds decided to evacuate the school for the day. "We talked about the legitimacy of the threat, and that it was the anniversary of Thurston, and in light of what is happening around the country, we had no choice but to evacuate," Reynolds said. It was a late-start day, and most of the 1,200 students weren't yet at school. Students who had arrived early were walked to the civic center or sent home. Other students were turned away as they neared the campus. "As I was walking to school one of the teachers said, `No school today -- bomb threat,"' sophomore Joe White said Friday morning. "So I just walked home, put on some shorts and I'm headed downtown." Police vehicles blocked streets around the school. Students at nearby Lincoln Elementary were evacuated from the parts of their building nearest the high school. Some school staff searched their classrooms and open areas of the school for suspicious packages. A loudspeaker announcement cleared the school a few minutes before 10 a.m. After the threatened time passed, some teachers volunteered to continue searching the school and their classrooms. "We're very disturbed this has happened," said Pat Morrison, an English teacher. Police said they were questioning school staff members about students who could have called in the threat, and vowed to interview possible suspects. School resource officer Teri DeSilva arrived at school still in her civilian clothes. She said she hates to think a student called in the threat, but realizes that's the most likely scenario. "Chaos can be completed with just a simple phone call," she said. "This is an act of terrorism." Shaw said she recently asked city attorney Paul Nolte to check into the possibility of stiffer penalties for people caught with weapons near Ashland schools. As she stood in the high school parking lot, she called on her cellular phone and asked him to add bomb threats. "In essence this was a joy ride -- you make a single call and get to watch city, school and elected officials scurry," she said. "Kids shouldn't take lightly the kind of impact this has on the community, not to mention the amount of money we expend." She said her biggest concern is that if bomb threats continue, they may not be taken as seriously. "It would be horrible if we didn't respond as we did and an explosive device went off in the school and hurt or killed students,'' she said. Reynolds said the last day of school -- June 10 -- will now be a full day instead of a half day, to make up for the four hours lost Friday. She said she was glad to see that the school's evacuation plan worked on Friday. Reynolds said future incidents might not mean clearing the school all day, but that each incident would be dealt with individually. "If we err, we will err on the side of safety," she said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA