Suspicious Package Prompts High School Evacuation
The incident happened five years to the day after terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania killed 2,973 people.
A high school faculty member who conducted a normal exterior security check found a suspicious package on the west side of the high school’s main entrance, Old Saybrook Public Information Officer Lieutenant Michael Spera said, and the individual followed guidelines by contacting the police department.
Spera said these security checks started after September 11, 2001 and doors to school facilities are locked at all times unless a faculty member is present.
It is uncertain whether the package was left at the school over the previous weekend or that morning, Spera said.
Officers deemed the package to be suspicious and a possible hazard so action was taken in establishing a unified command post with town public safety and school district officials, according to a joint press release from police services and the Board of Education.
The group deemed it necessary to evacuate the school and contact the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit, the release stated.
“It was deemed a serious threat or we wouldn’t have evacuated the school,” Spera said, adding that “thirty years ago, the teacher probably would have thrown it out but there have been stories of teachers or police officers throwing things away and losing an arm.”
The district’s bus company, M&J Bus Company, was contacted and instructed to come to the high school after completion of the Goodwin Elementary School bus run, Spera said.
Old Saybrook Police Chief Edmund Mosca and high school Assistant Principal Tara Winch ensured there was complete accountability for all four hundred and twenty nine students and fifty five faculty members who waited on the high school football field for approximately eleven busses that transported them to the Old Saybrook Middle School, Spera said.
Spera said Patrolman Samuel Barnes, the high school resource officer, and Patrolman Jay Rankin assisted as well.
The incident did not require the closure of Route 1, but Spera said that lower Ingham Hill Road was closed from McDonald’s, to the bus facility further north.
Additionally, five houses on Donnelly Street facing the high school parking lot were also evacuated, Spera said, but none of the residents needed shelter.
Old Saybrook Interim Superintendent Joe Onofrio said when high school students arrived at the middle school, each of the four grades were sent to different areas of the middle school including the gymnasium and cafeteria, and two other large areas.
“It worked out very well,” Onofrio said, adding “we called the central dispatch center and worked together with Spera and informed parents.”
Spera said all three Old Saybrook Public Schools are under construction which complicating the incident but public safety and school officials reviewed new procedures before construction began.
“The high school was our main concern,” Spera said, adding the facility acts as the town’s hurricane shelter and plans included using multiple areas inside the school as designated shelter areas in case of an emergency.
Ordinarily, only one part of the school acts as a shelter but procedures were changed because of the ongoing construction.
“This was the first time we evacuated a school in a non-drill scenario in the past five years,” Spera said.
The package was “smaller than the size of a shoe box but was not a shoe box,” Spera said, adding the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit, which includes the bomb squad, determined the package was not hazardous after performing a detailed examination.
Students were bussed back to the high school at 9:38 a.m., approximately an hour after being evacuated.
There are several different techniques the unit employs to detect whether a suspicious item is hazardous, Spera said.
The item was seized by Old Saybrook Police Department as evidence and will be sent to the state forensic laboratory for further investigation, the press release stated.
Spera hopes fingerprints will be found on the evidence leading police to the culprit.
The laboratory will contact the police department when the investigation is complete, Spera said, adding that it could take weeks.
The main question which will be addressed in the investigation will be whether this was a deliberate hoax or a package someone left behind, Spera said.
“I commend the staff of the high school and its students, they were positive, attentive, and learned a lot today,” Spera said, adding the behavior of the students during the incident was “phenomenal”.
While the high school planned a message on the public address system in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Spera said, the school instead held an assembly because of the day’s incident.
Letters will be sent to parents of all Old Saybrook Public School students about the incident, Spera said.
Other departments which responded included the Old Saybrook Fire Department, Old Saybrook Ambulance Association, and the Old Saybrook Office of Emergency Management.
