Students and teachers at Smithville Elementary School will be back in their classrooms Monday after a bomb threat Friday morning forced administrators to bus the children to Northside Elementary School for the rest of the day.
Director of Schools Patrick Cripps told WJLE that Mike Justice and Joe Brown from the Lebanon Special Unit brought in a dog to search the building Saturday and nothing suspicious was found.
Central dispatch received a call from the school’s SRO reporting the bomb threat incident at 10:07 a.m. Friday.
Once the automated call reporting the threat was received at the school, administrators sprung into action to begin evacuation of the building.
Only seven and a half minutes elapsed between the time Cripps placed a call to Transportation Supervisor Jimmy Sprague to get buses in route until the last child was removed from Smithville Elementary.
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Members of the Smithville Police and Fire Departments also quickly converged on the scene along with the Sheriff’s Department and DeKalb EMS. Authorities conducted a walk through of the school Friday but nothing was found. A bomb sniffing dog could not be obtained Friday because several other schools in middle Tennessee had also received similar bomb threats that day.
Director Cripps told WJLE that he wishes to thank the Smithville Police and Fire Departments for their efforts and to Captain Steven Leffew for lining up the search with the dog on Saturday.
The school system has received an all clear and Smithville Elementary will re-open on time Monday morning.
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