Bomb volunteers risked insurance coverage

I found the Letter to the Editor in the June 8 issue of the Lake Orion Review that described a bomb threat at the high school very interesting and quite shocking.
We were visiting our family in Lake Orion from our home in Waukesha, Wisconsin where we own a residential and commercial insurance business.
In my 37 years of insurance underwriting, I have never heard of any school or insured municipality have employees ‘volunteer? to search for an explosive device.
I wonder if the Lake Orion School District insurance carrier has any idea about what they are doing in that school? Believe me, they would LOVE to know.
What kind of school is this and what is wrong with the deputy, who witnesses say, was on the scene for the entire debacle?
I can tell you this…if you ‘volunteer? to search for a bomb and you ‘find? one, you are waving specific rights and personal coverage. After all, you VOLUNTEERED to be a human bomb detector.
Was there a disclaimer form passed out for those brave souls who decided it was worth risking their lives to sign? Did the high school give them written assurance that all their medical expenses, or worse, would be covered?
Because if you check your standard homeowners, life and accident policy, being a bomb technician is not a covered occupation. Neither is going to war or volunteering for any dangerous duty unless you have a specific high risk amendment.
In other words, if you volunteer for such a foolish thing to impress your boss, you are on your own if it really goes bad for you.
Thankfully, we will be back in Wisconsin soon where things aren’t perfect but at least valued employees would never be asked to put their lives in danger while being watched by the local law enforcement officer.
He should have stopped this immediately. Obviously, he doesn’t belong in a school where children’s lives are at risk. He should be severely reprimanded or removed from children.
You never send human beings to search 1,200 lockers for explosives when trained canines are within a few minutes away.
We are going to use this story, when we return home, as a training tool for all of our agents as a lesson about what NOT to do.
John Flemington

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