Bomb
scare clears out P'burg school
District officials hustle to find way to halt
threats, which started in April.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 • By LINDA LISANTI
• The Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- The school district is beginning this
school year the way it ended last year, with a series of
bomb threats.
On Tuesday, the district had its second scare in less
than a week, this time forcing the evacuation of
Phillipsburg Middle School.
The scene was similar to the Sept. 22 evacuation of
Green Street School after a student found a message
scratched into the wall of a girls bathroom stall. It was
also reminiscent of the four bomb scares the district
experienced in April -- three at the high school and another
at the middle school.
At 1:05 p.m. Tuesday, a note was found inside
Phillipsburg Middle School warning that a bomb would go off
at a certain time, Director of Security James P. Stettner
said.
Strapped for time, school officials decided to escort
students to the Firth Youth Center on Anderson Street, which
is just blocks away from the middle school, he said.
Students were held there for a little more than an hour
before being dismissed at regular time.
Meanwhile, bomb detection dogs from Pohatcong Township
Police, Union County Sheriff's Department and the New Jersey
Department of Corrections were called in to search the
Warren Street school.
No explosives were found.
Students and their parents were allowed to return to the
school later in the evening to retrieve items.
Superintendent Gordon Pethick said district officials
are examining potential ways to curb the threats and find
out who is making them.
At one point last year, they had talked about a reward,
he said.
"We'll be reviewing every possible action we can take to
stop these incidents," Pethick said.
"It's a complex problem."
Phillipsburg has security guards stationed at the middle
and high schools and has cameras in parts of the high
school, Stettner said.
The best deterrent of more bomb scares is an arrest, he
said.
Three people were charged for the threats of last school
year.
In July, 17-year-old Deziray Cunningham was given a
two-year suspended sentence, ordered to pay restitution of
$3,186 and spend time in a residential treatment program for
her role in the threats made to the high school.
Washington resident Franklin E. Nemeth, 20, of the 100
block of Lenape Trail, and a 15-year-old boy, also from
Washington, were both charged with criminal conspiracy and
making a false public alarm in connection with the bomb
scare at Phillipsburg Middle School.
District officials said they must take every threat
seriously and act accordingly, which almost always means
evacuating the building.
Stettner said they will always veer on the side of
safety.
"You never know. And we don't want to take that kind of
chance with the children," he said.
Reporter Linda Lisanti can be reached at 610-258-7171 or
by e-mail at llisanti@express-times.com.
Copyright 2004
The Express-Times. Used with permission.
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