Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Police arrest two in Alice bomb threats

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Thursday, March 29, 2001
Police arrest two in Alice bomb threats
School bans backpacks and parking on campus
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times
A 14-year-old Alice alternative high school student and a 25-year-old Alice man were arrested Wednesday in connection with bomb threats that have forced the evacuation of students at Alice High School for three consecutive days.
   A phone threat came in at about 10 a.m. Wednesday that resulted in students being bused to locations around the city as officers and bomb-sniffing dogs once again combed high school hallways.
   On Wednesday afternoon, Jim Wells County Sheriff's deputies arrested the pair and turned the man over to FBI agents in Corpus Christi, Sheriff Oscar Lopez said. The man is being held in the Nueces County Jail. The student is being held in a juvenile detention facility in Rio Grande City.
   High school students were returned to the school by 1:30 p.m., but the rash of bomb threats - five in the last three weeks - has prompted officials to make changes.
   Beginning today, changes include:

Students will no longer be allowed to bring backpacks to school. Instead, they will have to carry their books and supplies and use school lockers to hold their belongings during the day.

Parking will no longer be allowed on campus. Students will park at Memorial Stadium, a few hundred yards west of the high school, and take shuttle buses to school. Shuttles will run from 6:45 a.m. until 9 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. until 3:50 p.m. Parents can drop their children off in front of the school.
   Teachers will park at the Instructional Support Center Annex in the former bank building just north of the high school. Shuttle buses for teachers will run throughout the day from 6:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.

A Jim Wells County Sheriff's deputy with a bomb-sniffing dog will check the school before classes start each morning.
   Precautionary measures
   Officials said the changes are precautions meant to keep the school safe and to make sure future evacuations aren't as time consuming.
   With each previous evacuation, Alice police and Jim Wells County Sheriff's deputies have had to make a vehicle-by-vehicle inspection of cars and trucks in the campus parking lots.
   "If we do have another evacuation, (not having vehicles on campus) takes an hour off the search," said Ruth Cochran-Escamilla, spokeswoman for the Alice Independent School District.
   Principal Amy Koenning said the backpacks are being banned to better regulate what comes into the building. "It's so we don't have to worry about someone coming on campus with something," she said.
   Jim Wells County Sheriff Oscar Lopez released few details on the arrest, saying only that the case was under investigation. Lopez said the FBI will take over the case against the 25-year-old.
   Lopez would not say how the pair are connected, what led officials to them or whether they are suspected in all five bomb threats. But school officials are hopeful the arrests will bring an end to the evacuations.
   "They've caught somebody and we hope that's the end of it," Koenning said.
   Extracurricular activities at the high school, including sports, band practice and a PTA meeting, have not been affected by the evacuations, Koenning said.
   Lori Flores, an Alice High School senior, said students are getting fed up with the evacuations. "There is some fear that the threats may eventually become real, but for the most part we're really just irritated," she said. "We're tired of always being shuffled around and missing classes."
   Koenning said administrators are meeting to plan when the missed classes will be made up.
   School officials said the bomb threats have come through different ways, but did not want to discuss the language of the messages.
   The first threat was made on March 9 in the form of a package left in a bathroom. A student found the package wrapped in newspaper and duct tape and took it to the administration office.
   It turned out to be a speaker box with bags of dirt and a Coke can inside, police said. _ On March 19 a note left in a teacher's box warning of a bomb in the building forced an evacuation. Because officers weren't able to clear the building in time, classes were cancelled at 1:30 p.m. and students were sent home. _ On Monday and Tuesday the bomb threats were phoned in and students were forced out of their rooms from 9:30 a.m. until after 1 p.m.
   Alice police said Monday's call was made from a convenience store in Mathis and Tuesday's call was made from Robstown.

Staff writer Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 886-3779 or by e-mail at schwartzj@caller.com

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