Student offers ‘birds’ eye view’ of LHS bomb scare

By Amara Lee Garza
Special to the
POST-REGISTER

Monday Feb. 11, 2008, started off like any other Monday: slow, exhausting, with students dreading the tests they hadn”t studied for and trying desperately, to finish papers that were due the next period. Even the sun refused to get up, leaving us with an extremely humid and overcast day, which only added to t

he gloom.
I walked into second period dreading the Algebra II quiz Mrs. Moses warned us to study for. I pulled out my formula chart and searched for clues on how to solve the problem, which stared sternly back at me. Suddenly, an announcement came over the intercom.
No one thought anything of it. I mean, we hadn”t even said the Pledges yet. We all paused, some of us in mid-answer, prepared to stand in honor of our Flags. It was not the Pledge though.
With an undertone of urgency, our principal asked all the teachers to round up their students and have a roster on hand. We were instructed to head out to the football field.
No one knew what was going on – whether it was a drill or not, whether we should take our things with us or what time we were coming back. I had a brief struggle over my choice to take my purse or leave it. I decided I would come back for my stuff; I mean, it wouldn”t matter if I missed a few minutes of third period.
We all walked out to the football field trying, unsuccessfully, to stay with our classes. Random people threw out ideas about why we would be taken out of class. Some kids joked about the school exploding and landing around us while we were unprotected. Groups of friends filled the stands; no one looked for their second period classmates anymore.
No one really took it seriously. We were all bored and annoyed.
Laughter, shouting and even bubbles filled the air around the students as teachers and administrators whispered urgently about the situation at hand.
I didn”t think it was something really serious until I saw the babies from the Cub House and the lunch ladies walking out onto the field as well. I started to regret leaving my purse and phone in the building.
A rumor quickly spread that a bomb threat had been called.
We thought it couldn”t be too serious because, police cars, two fire trucks and an ambulance slowly ambled to our school”s parking lot without sirens wailing or lights flashing.
People started walking down to the track; some kids from my class called us over. We all gathered around Mrs. Moses, who told us to please stick together when we board the bus going to the Aviator Theatre.
The bus was already half-full as we got on and we were told to sit by threes. We squished into the seats and waited for another teacher”s student to get on board. Once he was finally found the bus headed for the theater.
“At least we”ll get a movie while we wait,” I thought silently as I looked out the window.
Some boys got rowdy and ticked off the bus driver. By the time we got to the theater it was already packed, with a sea of people outside the doors.
As we pulled in the bus driver got instructions over her radio that weren”t to unload. A second later some boy asked if we could get off the bus.
Tensions started to run high as some insisted they had to leave because their parents were waiting. Mrs. Moses tried to calm the frantic boys, while she carried her 2-year old, who was taking in the scene serenely.
Our bus finally pulled up in front of the theater. Some on the bus feigned claustrophobia, while others screamed, or began to shake the bus. Another shouting match emerged between the bus driver and the troublemakers, while the rest of us sat as our nerves were being ground down.
After a while, students were allowed to get checked out if their parent or guardian came to the bus door and signed their child out. I borrowed a phone and, like everyone around me, called to get picked up. The noise and confusion made me think back on the morning, and I worried about my belongings for the hundredth time.
My dad finally came to rescue me from the chaotic bus. As I walked to my dad”s Jeep I wondered what would push someone to waste everyone”s day with a stupid hoax.
Did they want a laugh? Did they want to get out of a test? Or was this person in such desperate need of attention that they decided to call in a bomb threat?
I guess the answer will remain unknown, until they get caught.