Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
As disruptions mount, Hillsborough's Sickles High is increasing the reward and hoping informers step forward.
By MICHAEL SANDLER
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 2000
TAMPA -- Students at Sickles High School had barely opened their books when the assistant principal announced the coded alert over the public address system. It was intended for teachers, but students knew what it meant.
Evacuate the building. Calmly gather all book bags and personal items, but move quickly. Someone had threatened to blow up the school -- again.
The anonymous call on Nov. 9 was the third this year. A fourth came five days later.
"They call it in so many times, and they are always fake," said sophomore Amanda Chapman. "If there is ever a real one, no one will take it seriously."
Principal Nuri Ayers might argue that she has never been more serious. Officials tried tracing the calls, but their efforts failed because the threats had come from cell phones. Their only hope rested with an informer.
So hours after that Nov. 9 call, with the students back in their seats, Ayers came back on the intercom with a new proposition: Give up your classmate, get a $250 reward.
"I think we finally got to the point where the kids are taking it seriously," Ayers said. "Kids might not give up their friend for $100, but they might for $250."
Ayers added $150 from the school's budget to an existing $100 reward offered by Hillsborough Crime Stoppers, a private tip line set up by the Sheriff's Office.
The bounty comes at a time when bomb threats have become nearly as common as fire drills.
The number of threats in Hillsborough schools has increased dramatically, many say as a direct result of the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. The tragedy reminds administrators that students are capable of extreme actions and that threats can never be taken lightly.
"We take every threat seriously," said Randy Poindexter, assistant superintendent for Hillsborough schools. "No threat is so insignificant that we don't follow up on it. You can never take a chance and not search a school."
Hillsborough schools received 63 bomb threats last school year, up from 35 in 1998-99 and 15 in 1997-98. Since July 1, there have been 21, including four at Sickles.
In Pinellas County, schools reported 50 bomb threats last year and more than a dozen this year between Aug. 23 and Oct. 1. Pasco schools had five bomb threats last year and four this year; Hernando, 12 last year and three this year, and Citrus, three last year and none this year.
Ayers, the Sickles principal, hopes the increased reward will put an end to the threats. Rewards work, she said.
This summer, authorities charged a student with lighting a fire in a girls' bathroom at Sickles. The arrest happened after other students came forward with information in exchange for the $100 Crime Stoppers reward.
Fellow administrators applaud the effort.
"It's just like anything else: Money talks," said Chamberlain High principal Henry Washington, who often pays reward money out of his own pocket to help catch vandals and other disruptive students.
But the real test lies with students. Some say the extra money will help.
"It's easier to bribe them to confess," said Sickles sophomore Angie Conkeo. "Even if it was their friend, they'd do it for $250. That's how people are today."
But a few students said the money may exacerbate the problem. They fear more attention will translate into more bomb threats, and that offering money for information sets the wrong example.
"It's ridiculous," said Georgette Acquaah-Harrison, a Sickles junior. "It's a last resort. It takes pure greed."
Poindexter disagreed. Many times, he said, student tipsters, who always remain anonymous, don't even claim the reward.
"It's a shame that we have to offer money to do that," he said, "but it shows a commitment on our part that we are not going to tolerate this. The message should be that peers can stop the disruptions in schools."
Making a bomb threat is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in a Florida state prison, said Pam Bondi, a Hillsborough prosecutor. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement offers a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of someone in a bomb threat case.
When a bomb threat comes in to Sickles, Nelson Duarte, an assistant principal who leads evacuation efforts there, alerts the 170 teachers. They have 10 minutes to scan their room and move students to the door.
"Teachers know once that code comes over the speaker they have certain responsibilities," Duarte said.
Armed with a walkie-talkie, Duarte works closely with the school resource deputy, seven other assistant principals and crisis team volunteers to check the grounds. Thy look underneath every car in the parking lot and around the athletic fields. Once clear, Duarte sounds a second signal, and students begin evacuating to the safe area.
Once students are out, school staff members search the 86-acre campus for anything unusual. They check lockers, classrooms, even the roof. It takes about an hour.
"If they leave a book bag behind, that will be searched," Ayers said.
Once the building is declared safe, the students return. But important hours are lost in the process.
"The first threat, it was cool and all because you got out of class," said sophomore Andrea Kelley. "But by the third one, you get annoyed. You try to do all your work or take a test, and if you don't finish, you get penalized."
Crime Stoppers can be reached at 800-873-TIPS or www.crimestopperstb.com.
-- Times staff writers Robert King and Barbara Behrendt contributed to this report.