Recently, several schools in FCPS have been experiencing bomb threats.
According to the Washington Post, about seven schools received bomb threats in Northern Virginia, causing students to evacuate the school almost immediately.

Threats were made with computerized and anonymous phone calls which are known to be hard to trace.
According to the the Educator’s School Safety Network, 49% of threats are done by calls, 33% are found written in school, 11% are done by email/social media and 7 % are through some other medium.
False threats or bomb-related prank calls should stop.

Not only do they intervene with classes, but they also put school administrators in a tough situation.
Student safety always comes first, even if most of the time the threats are false. It is better safe than sorry in the eyes of school officials.

When you hear the words “school bomb threats,” the picture of police involvement, class disruption and startled students and parents comes to mind. For some people, it is just a great way to have time off school, thinking it is probably just a false alarm.
But for others, it is a scary thought. Especially for parents, since they have to deal with the thought that their children have to go to school when there might be a chance they can be in danger.
“The next time there is a real bomb, no one is going to believe it,” sophomore Holly Ramia said.

School officials do not ignore school threats, whether they appear to be false or not.
Bomb threats mean that bombs are a possibility and should be taken very seriously.
Unfortunately, due to robocalls, these threats have become a matter of false alarms and prank calls.

Some say that school threats are mostly pranks and that they should just be ignored if it ever happens. In some ways, It is kind of true.
It is rare that real bombings actually happen. There have been more threats than there have been accidents.

However, there is always a possibility that incidents like this can happen. The “better safe than sorry” policy and the fear of possible incidents ultimately makes school districts safe.
“People should take bomb threats seriously, even if they are fake. You can never know if they are true or not,” sophomore Nallely Beraun said.

If a student ever finds themselves in a situation where the school has been threatened and everyone is going to evacuate soon, they should simply follow teachers’ directions and in no way panic.
Panicking would result in more students getting anxious and in them starting to push. Some might even fall and get trampled over, resulting in injuries.

The consequences of school canceling will fall on students as much as it will fall on the teachers and school administrators.
Not having school will cause classes to fall behind and students and teachers to suffer the consequences of trying to catch up.
According to HG.org Legal Resources, penalties of making a bomb threat are quite severe and can lead to being charged with a felony ( a crime punishable for over more than one year in prison,) however it all depends upon the severity of the crime and the judge’s jurisdiction.

At the end of the day, the main thing that should matter is student safety, even if it puts the school in a tough situation or we fall behind on classes.
If there is a risk that someone might get harmed, everything else should be put aside.