Vanessa Junkin

vjunkin@dmg.gannett.com

When the automated bomb threat came into Delmar Elementary School on Tuesday, Wicomico County Public Schools knew what they had to do.

Wicomico County Public Schools got a number of comments on Facebook from dismayed parents on how it handled a Monday bomb threat at Parkside High School in Salisbury. Parents were unhappy that they were not notified fast enough and that there was no evacuation after Monday's threat.

On Tuesday, the call to Delmar parents went out earlier. Fredericksen said that was mostly due to Delmar being a much smaller school than Parkside, so once the school was declared safe, they could inform parents. But the comments also had an impact, he said, and the school system also had the recent experience with the similar situation.

Wicomico County was far from the only school system handling bomb threats during the past two days. On Tuesday, there were also threats at Sussex County schools and at Ocean City Elementary School in Worcester County.

Wicomico County Public Schools Superintendent John Fredericksen said each school was doing additional training on dealing with situations such Tuesday's event.

The Tuesday incidents followed several threats Monday in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.

Bomb threats made at multiple Delmarva schools

Latest wave of incidents

Bomb threats were also made on Tuesday at Millsboro Middle School and Beacon Middle School in Lewes, Delaware State Police said. That prompted evacuations, and state and local police K-9s responded. Two schools in Wilmington also received threats; one of which was a robotic call like at the Millsboro and Lewes schools, and one of which was separate, police said.

On Tuesday, investigations were also being conducted by the Dover, Greenwood and Milford police departments for similar incidents that occurred at schools within their jurisdictions, according to Delaware State Police.

Ocean City Elementary School received a phone call with a threat — not a robotic call — at about 9:15 a.m., said Worcester County public schools spokeswoman Carrie Sterrs.

Before 11:30 a.m., the school was determined to be safe, with no suspicious items found in the school, and students were being transported back to the school from an Ocean City fire station, Sterrs said. A call went out to parents.

Later the same day, there was another evacuation for smoke, but nobody was injured and it was unrelated to the bomb threat, according to Worcester County public schools.

Monday's bomb threat lesson

After Monday's threat at Parkside, Wicomico County parents expressed on Facebook they were unhappy how things were handled: late notification and no evacuation.

Fredricksen said they handled the situation based on what they knew.

"It was not a credible call," Fredricksen said.

Students also weren't evacuated at Delmar Elementary School on Tuesday, he said, where, like Parkside, the school was determined to be safe.

Neither Parkside nor Delmar students were ever in danger, Fredericksen said.

While the "default" decision in a situation like this is normally to evacuate, school staff does some preliminary evaluation of the call, and a variety of factors come into play, Fredericksen said. Law enforcement still searched the buildings at both Parkside and Delmar.

"Each space was checked out thoroughly," Fredericksen said, and nothing suspicious was found.

While some comments on the Wicomico County Public Schools' Facebook page were still negative on Tuesday, others saw where the school system was coming from.

"Why are the Delaware schools evacuated and Wicomico county students not?" Kristin Hathway wrote in a Facebook comment on the page. "Just because one was fake doesn't mean they all are. If my child's school receives a threat I would want them evacuated."

On the other side was Julie King Beachboard, who surmised it might also be dangerous if students were outside.

"This is always a tough call... The probability of a bomb being in one of the schools is quite low with all the security in place. When a threat is called in and schools are evacuated outside, think about the threat then... They are sitting ducks to any kind of mass shooting. It is difficult either way and school officials do their best with information they have to keep students safe."

Ben Penserga contributed to this report.