North High’s 4th Bomb Threat of Year Has Students Demanding More Security

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Friday, January 23, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor

On Tuesday, North High School students were evacuated for the fourth time this school year due to a bomb threat. Following the bomb threat, the Worcester Police Department arrested three North students for fighting.

Since then, the North High students have created a petition for a police presence at the school. 

On Thursday, at the Worcester School Committee meeting, North High faculty, who sent Mayor Joe Petty a petition of their own from 80 members of faculty, voiced their demands for more staffing and support at the school.

At the meeting, Leonard Zalauskus, the President of the Educational Association of Worcester (EAW), spoke on behalf of North High faculty. Zalauskus said, "We appreciate the work that has been done there (North). More staff has been added, but it hasn't been adequate. We would like to see more staff in the building. When you have more staff in the building, you have more people in the halls, more people on duty. There's more people in general. That would add to the climate at that school. North High is a great school. And there's a tremendous amount of good kids at that school. And they deserve this."

North High has the high one of the larges populations in the school system, but it has the second lowest amount of faculty and staff in the city. However, it doesn't sound as if there will be any more teachers coming to North this school year. Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone argues that between Fiscal Year 2011 and FY2015, the school system added 21 teachers at North.

"I certainly appreciate the communication and the petition that has come forward," said Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone. "What we've done is effectively add 21 teachers over the last four budget cycles. And I think it's also interesting to note that...North High was the only high school slated to receive additional teachers versus other high schools that were slated to have reductions in teaching staff. We've been trying to look at it in terms of enrollment pieces and in terms of what's going on. I certainly respect this communication and petition and look forward to the conversations we will have during the budget cycle."

According to the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE), over the course of the last four years, the attendance at North High has grown by 212 students. 

Tuesday's Bomb Threat at North High

According to Robert Pezzella, the Worcester Public School Safety Liaison, "When threats are made, we have to determine whether the threat is a low, medium or high risk to follow through on that threat. That’s why evacuations come sometime after the threat is made to the school building."

Pezzella, an original point of contact for bomb threats in Worcester Public Schools, has been doing his job for over 17 years and has been trained by the Massachusetts State Police to handle bomb threats.  

The WPD press release states, “at approximately 11:24 AM, Worcester Police responded to 150 Harrington Way, North High School, for a reported bomb threat. Students within the school were evacuated. Officers at the scene searched the building. The search produced nothing suspicious. The principal deemed the building safe and the students were allowed to re-enter.”

"Sometimes threats are made to school buildings, in particular bomb threats, so once the threat is made, we have to take appropriate bomb threat procedures to insure that to the best of our professional ability we are making the right decision to either evacuate or do something else that would be required to keep the school’s students and staff as safe as we can,” said Pezzella

As GoLocal reported, North High School was the victim of two bomb threats this fall. North's principal, Lisa Dyer, who has been principal since 2013, was not available to comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Pezzella said, “It’s the administration’s responsibility to assess and decide to either evacuate the building based on the threat, or come up with another bomb threat assessment procedure. In this case, like the three other bomb cases we’ve had at this school this year, we evacuated. Contrary to public perception, when we re-enter the building, it’s the principal’s decision to return to school or not. A lot of people are under the impression that the public safety agencies, i.e.. police, fire, make the decisions for the school. They don’t. By law, it is the principal’s and administration’s decision to return or not return.”

According to the WPS Student Handbook, "No student shall communicate or cause to be communicated any information in any form whatsoever that a bomb or any type of explosive device is located in or on any building or property under the control of the Worcester Public Schools or is at any school sponsored situation, including but not limited to transportation provided by the Worcester Public Schools, either directly or by contracted services."

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