“It was a blast,” C. Milton Wright senior Connor Nelson said regarding the bomb threat on Oct. 24.

Despite Nelson’s comment, no blasts actually went off at C. Milton Wright (CMW), JC, Patterson Mill, Edgewood, and Aberdeen, which were all mentioned in a bomb threat found in a CMW bathroom stall.

On Oct. 18 a bomb threat written on a bathroom stall was found at CMW. Students were immediately evacuated and a bomb detecting dog and police searched the school. When no bombs or other dangerous objects were found, students were allowed to reenter the school.

The Oct. 18 threat also said that bombs would go off at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 24 at the five aforementioned schools.

Precautions were taken at these schools on Oct. 24. There was an increase in police presence, especially at CMW because of the previous threat.

Although the Oct. 24 threat mentioned all five schools, JC was the only school to have an evacuation. At 10:15 a.m., students were evacuated from the building. Then at 10:45 a.m., students were allowed to re-enter.

“I felt safe, especially with the evacuation. I was sure that if [the threat] had been more credible, the administration wouldn’t have let us come to school,” JC senior Rebecca Kotula said.

“Getting 700 students out of school quietly is hard, but we did it,” Kotula said.

In a note sent via email to students on Oct. 26, JC Principal Madelyn Ball thanked the students for their good behavior. “[The students] handled this matter with the utmost dignity, respect, and maturity,” Ball said.

The bomb threat did not deter most JC students from attending school. In a letter sent to parents on Oct. 23, Ball said that missing school due to the threat would be considered an excused absence. On Oct. 24, 10.3 percent of students were absent, equating to about 72 students. Although this percent is above the average day, JC had the highest percent of attendance out of the five schools mentioned in the threat.

“I would have been sad to miss out on Spirit Week had I chosen to stay home,” Kotula said.

Oct. 24 was Class Color Day and the day of the Powder Puff game.

At CMW, Patterson Mill, Edgewood, and Aberdeen, attendance was below average, with each school having 77 percent, 87 percent, 84 percent, and 86 percent of students present respectively, according to The Aegis.

“I think that the low attendance at school today [Oct. 24] wasn’t a result of actual fear of the threat, but more students taking advantage of the situation,” CMW senior Sam Hahner said.

Other students expressed similar opinions. “It’s sad that students take these threats as a joke and as an excuse to skip school,” CMW senior Lena Sharesky said.

Because there was not a bomb on Oct. 18, many CMW students did not take the second threat seriously.

“I think it was obvious that it was simply a prank, but the precautions taken were still necessary. I personally never feared it,” Hahner said.

Mary Kate Luft is an A&E Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.