A bomb threat is what occurs when some stupid person writes, calls, or verbalizes that they have placed or will place a bomb somewhere.

Usually (in my experience), the person (or people) that makes the threat has no intention of carrying it out, but only wants to inconvenience everyone else.

My school has had about eight bomb threats in the past 2 months, with 6 happening withing two weeks of each other. This is ridiculous. At first when it happened, we got the rest of the day off of school so that school officials could make sure the school was safe. Then, the next day when people came to school, their bags and coats were searched.

Seeing as I had multiple chances to test their security measures, I decided to. First of all, with many entrances to my school (and confusion), it is easy to slip by unnoticed. I also found that I was able to avoid any search by just saying, "Oh, no, don't search me. I've already been searched." The people searching are so untrained that they will believe you and possibly let a real bomb go by.

Now that my community has had ample time to decide on their plan for the next threat, we are further inconvenienced. All students (all 2000 of them) are required to walk down to the nearby middle school, where attendance is taken. Then, once the whole building has been searched (including backpacks that were forcibly left behind), everyone must march back to school.

This is no fun during the winter.

Even days in which there is no bomb threat is a hassle. If you wish to go to your locker/the bathroom/etc., you must first show your student handbook (which has a built in hallpass), student ID, and have a damn good reason. Once you have made it outside of the classroom (congratulations if you have), you are stopped almost every minute by someone requiring you to sign a sheet, show your ID, state your purpose, and possibly get questioned. Everyone who goes past the main hall (always busy) during class must sign a paper stationed there.

One horrible factor is that the school board has to pay many people every day to just stand and stop people. A waste of money if you ask me.

One additional measure they have taken is to lock every bathroom except two on the first floor (one on each side) and one on the second floor. Those in the basement are basically out of luck.

As should be painfully obvious, the system in place is horribly flawed. Unfortunately, there has been no better one (at least in the eyes of those with power) proposed. I just wish people would stop seeing bomb threats as a quick way to get out of school, as we just get shuttled to a different school and have to make up the hours we miss during summer break.

In case one of the people who wrote the threats reads this, please adhere to my advice:

Grow up.