Parents and legal guardians of Kimball High School students wait in line to pick up students from the school's football stadium after a Monday, March 18, evacuation of the campus because of a bomb threat. Courtesy of Jon Healy
Students were dismissed from the 3200 Jaguar Run school at the usual time of 2:03 p.m., according to Tracy Unified School District spokeswoman Jessica Cardoza, after a search of the campus found “no explosive devices of any type.”
Though all Monday after-school activities except soccer practice were canceled, school will resume as usual at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 19, Cardoza said.
Students had been evacuated to the school’s football stadium bleachers because of the bomb threat discovered in a boys locker room around 8:30 a.m., Cardoza said.
She did not release details about the message, but said it was posted some time between 7 a.m. and its discovery by students in a weight-lifting class who were using the locker room.
Three other bomb threats were made against Kimball and Tracy high schools on Wednesday, March 13, and Thursday, March 14.
Cardoza said on Monday that school officials and bomb-sniffing dogs checked the Kimball campus between 5 and 7 a.m. on Monday “as a precaution.”
“We wanted to be proactive,” she said. “We were trying to get ahead of the game.”
District policy dictates that bomb-sniffing dogs are used to sweep a school where a bomb threat is made. Cardoza said the district has a contract with the Modesto-based service, Kontraband Intradiction and Detection Services Inc.
Students who were evacuated to the bleachers at Don Nicholson Stadium were provided food and water while they waited for the regular dismissal time of 2:03 p.m., or for a legal guardian to physically sign for their release at the football field.
Parents received an email from the district 8:55 a.m. stating that the district is taking the threat seriously, but it wasn’t believed to be “credible.”
Cardoza called Monday’s threat a “copycat” of the bomb threats made last week.
“It seems to be copycatting the idea,” she said. “Making threats to schools seems to be the vogue thing to do right now.”
Students at Tracy High were evacuated to Lincoln Park on Wednesday around 2:05 p.m. when bomb threats were found on the walls of two boys bathrooms.
The following day, students at Kimball were evacuated to the football stands just before 1:30 p.m. following a phone call that there was a bomb in the school.
Nearly two hours later, a second bomb threat was found in a bathroom at Tracy High, and remaining staff and students were forced to leave campus.
Two Tracy High students were arrested around 2:30 p.m. Thursday while in class for their alleged roles in the threat at the school on Wednesday, according to Tracy police.
They are each expected to be charged with making terrorist threats and making a bomb threat — both felonies — and a misdemeanor charge of disrupting school.
Cardoza said the students found responsible for making bomb threats would be subject to expulsion, and will be prosecuted.
As of Monday morning, no one had been named in connection with the Kimball incidents.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Cardoza said. “We hope students get frustrated and will come forward (with suspects).”
Kimball High junior Katalina Rodriguez was signed out for the day at 11 a.m. by her mother.
“I personally think it’s a joke, but it’s not funny,” the 17-year-old said. “I think the students should just stop … It’s kind of ridiculous.”
Her mother, Carolina Rodriguez, waited more than an hour and a half to sign out Katalina, while holding her 1-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. She also made a special trip to pick up her daughter during Thursday’s scare.
“Waiting two hours for your kid is not fast enough,” she said. “Here I am with two kids, and it just takes a toll on you. You want to believe it’s not real, but what if it is? I just want it to be over.”
Ken Allen, whose son is a junior at Kimball, said he was concerned about parents and students having to wait so close to the campus for such an extended time.
“It definitely interrupts my day, but I’m not complaining about that,” Allen said. “I just think that if there were truly a bomb here, we’d be blown to smithereens waiting.”
Cardoza said school officials have reviewed evacuation procedures at Kimball and were not concerned about sending students to the same place twice in a row.
“We did look over the plan this morning,” she said. “There are a number of places students can be evacuated to on and off campus.”
Cardoza added that the stadium was cleared before students were sent there.
“We did a very thorough visual check,” she said. “We looked to make sure there was nothing there — not even a water bottle.”
TUSD officials discussed checking West and Tracy high schools before school started on Monday, according to Cardoza, but decided to start with Kimball because it evacuated most recently due to the threat on Thursday.
• Contact Jon Mendelson at 835-3030 or jmendelson@tracypress.com.
The reason THS caught their culprits was because they were seen on camera. According to the guy fixing the cameras at TLC, they had to fix Kimball's cameras also. So....Kimball's cameras were not working at the time. So lets make sure if they break, they get fixed right away from now on! Thats a start:0
Here's the link
As to, it only takes once, although common sense comes into play it's more about loss mitigation. Unless you have some mental power or training the rest of us including police & school officials do not possess, how do you determine if a bomb threat is credible without an evacuation? Would you prefer they search the buildings while leaving the kids inside where they can get blown up if indeed there is a bomb?
No one is suggesting cowering at home but if you were walking down the street and come upon a tree which appears to be ready to fall, would you walk under it or stay clear? You may think, it will never happen to me, there's no way that tree's going to fall at this exact moment in time, whereas I would think about mitigating my chances of getting injured by walking far enough away to avoid the tree just in case it picks that exact moment in time to go down. It only takes once.
I also want to comment about the road construction that has been going on for 3 yrs now and I see no end to it. It'll probably be done when my son is out of Kimball.
Kimball also has the worst car line in all of the High Schools here in Tracy. No one seem to get how a car line works and ppl seem to not care if there are cars behind them and that they need to drive forward and not stop anywhere they feel like.
Lolette, I hope your son is feeling better! I hope we never have to go through that again!
One more thing I would like to add;Teachers who in there right mind would be testing right now. Are kids are scared,fustrated,anxious,they are in no mind frame for it.Seriously!!!
Maybe you should display some common sense and realize we live in a litigation happy society where people such as doctors, teachers, & law enforcement personnel are lawsuits waiting to happen when something goes awry in their decisions or actions.
Here's a little saying we have in my profession, all it takes is once.
As for your reply to not sending your kids to school, the movies, mall grocery store. If they had a threat, credible or not at that time, I would not send them there. We are talking about when there is a threat. You are comparing apples to oranges.
SOMEBODY needs to get back in their minivan and march out to the soccer field so they can scream at the kids while they PMS. Whew lady.
Are you kidding, this from a school district representative? These are possibly provable as acts of terror, did Jessica miss the part about the two suspects from a prior threat possibly being charged with making terrorist threats? I suggest those taking this lightly or attributing these acts to kids making mistakes or having wayward fun should research the definition of a terrorist act.
Mrs. Rodrigues states she wants it to be over, yea me too. You know how to end this bs? Bring terrorist charges against the suspects and if proven give the max sentence, period. It is time to send a message and no one for even a moment should look at this in anyway other than what it is, bomb and possibly terrorist threats against U.S citizens.
“It seems to be copycatting the idea,” she said. “Making threats to schools seems to be the vogue thing to do right now.”
Maybe we should make long prison sentences and sterilization for the clowns involved, and their parents, the vogue thing to do starting now which would help discourage this type of felonious behavior from happening around town
I think Ken Allen has a point about how close they are to the school when they have been evacuated.
You really can't blame the school for these threats. They are doing the best they can, and I don't blame them for thinking about money too. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Because if they don't think about money now, someone will still be complaining when their child doesn't have a new History book next year due to lack of funds.
I know it's a tough matter but I think what everyone should be doing is talking to their children. Not interrogating, just talking, and someone is bound to come up with some information. It's highschool not the Navy SEALS.