GUILDERLAND — Just as school was starting, at 7:50 a.m. Thursday morning, Jan. 18, Guilderland Police called Westmere Elementary School. “The police had received a 9-1-1 call and quickly determined it was not a credible report,” said Superintendent Marie Wiles.

“They reached out to the school to alert them and we just followed through to make sure everything was as it should be,” said Wiles.

This meant the arriving students, as they got off the buses, went to their classrooms where they were “sheltered in place,” Wiles said. “We practice this and use it for a variety of reasons.”

She explained that the hallways are cleared and children, with their teachers, stay in their classroom where learning takes place as usual. She gave an example of when sheltering in place had been used — when a child became very ill, the hallways were cleared so that other students wouldn’t witness the child being carried out on a stretcher to an ambulance.

On Thursday, Westmere students stayed in their classrooms for about an hour, from 8 to 9 a.m., and then went on “with their regular day,” said Wiles. “As a precaution, we had a police presence in the building,” she said, adding, “We have a great relationship with the Guilderland Police.”

Curtis Cox, the deputy chief for the Guilderland Police, said the police had received a 9-1-1 call “from a very, very young child” at 7:39 a.m. “The claim was an emergency was going on at the school,” Cox said.

All such claims are taken seriously, he said, and police checked to be sure nothing was awry at the school.

“Later that afternoon, we had a similar call,” Cox said. “They said there was a threat at the school.” Police were then able to track the call to the children who placed it.

No arrests were made. Because of the age of the children, whom Cox described as “very young elementary school students,” the police are leaving the matter to the school to handle.

While Guilderland Police have dealt before with fake threats from older students — in 2016, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old were arrested on felony charges for emailing two fake bomb threats to Guilderland High school administrators — this is the first time police have dealt with someone so young making a fake threat, said Cox.

He went on to say it’s not infrequent for police to get accidental 9-1-1 calls when children are playing with a phone, but the calls from children on Jan. 18 were not accidental, Cox said.

“There’s something to be learned from this,” said Cox. “A phone that’s been discarded will still call 9-1-1 … Parents need to discuss with their kids the importance of 9-1-1 and that it is for a true emergency.”

He went on, “With a fictitious call, the police and, in this case, the school have to take it seriously. We have to treat it like a true emergency. You put responders in danger as well as those around you, and you use resources that might be needed elsewhere.”

In such situations, police are often stationed at the site of the supposed threat. While Cox said he wouldn’t discuss response protocols, he said, “We allow police presence for maybe the rest of the day, depending on the circumstances.”

Westmere parents were informed about the situation through the School News Notifier, an electronic notification system. “We’ve heard from a couple of parents,” said Ben Amey, a BOCES publicist currently filling in for the Guilderland School District. “It’s mostly pretty quiet,” he said on Jan. 18.

Wiles concluded, “We take every potential concern seriously and follow through.” She spoke further of the “balance” the district is constantly seeking to maintain. “We have to balance a safe, welcoming environment with what is credible. We’re always walking that line to best protect our students without scaring them.”

 
Updated on Jan. 18, 2018: Comments from Guilderland Superintendent Marie Wiles largely replaced comments from publicist Ben Amey.

Updated on Jan. 23, 2018: Comments from the Guilderland Police deputy chief, Curtis Cox, were added.