By JEFF LIPTON
Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg said the first call came in at 6:20 a.m. and the second was placed at 6:40 a.m.
A police spokeswoman for the 4th Precinct said the calls were made by two different males, who stated “A bomb is in the building.”
Police responded and searched the building with high school security and “the building was secured and cleared for the students” to arrive after it was determined that the calls were unfounded, the police spokeswoman said.
Those who are caught could be charged with falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor, she said.
“Hopefully, police will be able to locate the individuals who did it,” Greenberg said. Greenberg said the students were not in the process of taking tests, which is when many bomb scares are called in.
“We have them [bomb scares] at certain times of the year and it's like a recurring problem, but this was just a hoax to disrupt the educational process,” he said. “It was unfortunate, but we have to take them all seriously.”
Greenberg said police closed off the campus, barring school buses, students and teachers from entering. He added that police didn't conduct a sweep of the building until a police supervisor arrived at 7:10 a.m., and the search takes about 45 minutes.
The campus was reopened at about 7:45 a.m., right in time for the start of classes, said Greenberg, who added that he sent a notification to parents about the bomb scare at 8:30 a.m.
Parents complained that they were not notified sooner about the incident, leaving parents and their children in the dark about what was going on.
“At 6:40 a.m., they could have had a call out to all the parents,” said one woman whose son attends the school. “They had kids held on buses, kids standing in the streets. Half of them had gone home. It was really quite a debacle.
“The way they handled this is bad,” she added. “My son could have been one of those kids standing out there on a bike. The more kids on the streets, someone gets hit, a fight starts. So I think they really need to get a better handle on this, especially with the emergency call system.”
The superintendent said he received complaints from parents and explained to them that he did not want to give out information until he was certain it was accurate. “Of course, I got complaints,” Greenberg said. “If I was a parent, I would be upset as well.
“Everyone expects to receive an instant message, but I didn't want to release any information until I was sure it was accurate,” Greenberg said.
“Could we have done a better job of communicating? I think so,” said Greenberg, who added that school officials will review procedures of notifying parents in such an emergency.
Comments about this story? Jlipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
