By KIMBERLY ACEVEDO
A phone call stating there was a bomb in the school was made from a pay phone in the cafeteria on Friday, May 10 at 9 a.m., Long Beach superintendent Ron Friedman said. The phone call, he said, was a typical prank phone call but assumptions couldn't be made and officials always want to be on the side of caution, he said.
Nassau County Police were summoned to the scene as staff members escorted students to the athletic field, and children from Blackheath School were taken to the middle school, Friedman said. Students remained in place until Nassau County Police deemed the building was safe after a sweep for potential explosives.
Sophomore Joe McEnerney was in social studies class when the announcement came over the speakers. It was weird, he said. It was confusing because they didn't tell you exactly what was happening.
And Nick Ciccarello agreed. He didn't know why students were being brought to the athletic field, he said. He said he found it a disruption because the students had to wait in the field.
A spokesperson for Nassau County Police declined to give details of the incident.
While nothing was found, Friedman said that if something were found it would be up to Nassau County to determine if the bomb squad is necessary.
Still, several students felt uncomfortable and asked to go home following the incident, he said.
It was pretty interesting, said freshman Joel Greenfield. Some made fun of it, but then they realized it was serious and they felt bad.
But he said most students weren't nervous and they saw it as an opportunity to leave school early. As of press time, Long Beach High School principal Neal Maffei was unavailable for comment.
Nassau County detectives who were on the scene told district officials that the caller was a young male and school officials believe it could be the same suspect who called in a similar threat the previous day. Since the call was placed to 911, police have a tape of the threat, Friedman said. Detectives are analyzing the caller's voice for possible identification.
If anybody saw it, hopefully they will come forward, Friedman said. Often, the kids are going to begin to talk. We have some sense of the kids that might be involved. But it's very hard.
The initial bomb threat was made near the end of the day during the change of classes at 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, according to officials. Since the high school day ends at 2:45 p.m., buses were called in early to take the students home.
Before Thursday, Long Beach High School hasn't heard a bomb threat since 1999 when the incident at Columbine occurred, Friedman said. And, he noted, last year legislation upgraded false bomb threats to a felony.
This behavior is a criminal offense, he said. If the offenders are caught, they will be prosecuted as felons to the fullest extent of the law.
The individual would suffer a long-term suspension from school, but Friedman also would seek jail time for the suspect.
We take safety and security seriously, Friedman said. We thank the parents in the community for understanding when we have a difficult situation such as this.
I have no control over a nut that is going to commit a crime like this, he said. All we can do is deal with it as effectively as possible.
