SCHOOL New threat of bomb draws parents

The disruptions are hurting the learning process, the superintendent said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Some parents of Farrell Area School District pupils, apparently fed up with the rash of bomb threats in the district, showed up at the school Wednesday morning shortly after the latest threat.
Police said writing on a restroom mirror warning that a bomb would explode in the school at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday was found around 11 a.m. and the building was quickly evacuated.
While safety forces searched, all pupils from the middle-high school and attached elementary school were moved to the high school football field for safety.
The intent was to keep them there until the all-clear signal was given and they could return to class, but some parents began showing up around 11:30 a.m. insisting they wanted to take their children home.
Some kids go home
Authorities at first refused to let anyone in or out of the stadium, and police said some parents became quite upset. Police closed parking lot entrances and called in backup units at one point, but authorities soon relented and allowed parents to sign out their children and take them home.
Superintendent Richard Rubano said the school realizes that parents have the authority to take their children out of school. He had no estimate on how many left the premises. Everyone else re-entered the buildings around 12:30 p.m.
It was the second bomb threat at the school in two days and the third in two weeks.
"These are felonies. We are going to pursue these to the hilt," Rubano said, adding, "There's no learning going on." Police have some good leads in the latest case, he said.
The school district is considering offering a reward through Mercer County Crime Solvers to find the person or people responsible and prosecute them.
Rubano said that if it is a pupil, he will recommend permanent expulsion.
Making up time
Pupils also may have to make up lost time by attending classes during scheduled vacation days or perhaps at the end of the school year, he warned.
Classes were to be back on a regular schedule today, but there was a difference in the hallways.
Rubano said parent security volunteers, a group that works home football games for the district, offered their services to monitor hallway activity during the school day, and the district accepted.