Goodrich – Students were evacuated from the high school Monday morning, after school officials discovered a bomb threat.
The threat was left on the school’s answering machine May 22, said Detective Sgt. Mike Tocarchick, commander of the Genesee County Sheriff Atlas Township Precinct.
The message, left in what sounded like a disguised young male voice, was discovered early the morning of May 23.
Goodrich High School was locked down while students were accounted for, before the first group was evacuated to Oaktree Elementary at approximately 7:30 a.m. Students began returning to the high school around 10:45 a.m.
Police were assisted by Livingston County bomb-sniffing K-9 units which searched the evacuated school.
The bomb threat is the first since a 15-year-old female student confessed to a bomb hoax in September 2003, which she’d made in an attempt to score a day off school. The student was expelled.
Procedures have been ‘tightened up? since the 2003 threat, says Kim Hart, Goodrich schools superintendent. Students now aren’t allowed to leave for the day following a threat, as sometimes happened previously.
‘We’re going to keep school in session,? Hart said. ‘It’s not a way to get out of school.?
The school’s policy is supported by police and the Genesee County prosecutor’s office.
‘There have been just too many across the county,? says Hart, who commended staff for how efficiently the situation was handled.
Police are livid at this most recent threat, says Tocarchick, who promises to seek maximum prosecution, plus paying restitution for all costs.
A reward is also being offered for information leading to conviction of the bomb-threat maker. If you have information about the incident, call (810) 257-3422.