Scary moments for Eastridge parents after bomb threat. 'My heart has been pounding.'

Tracy Schuhmacher | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption Eastridge High School students reunited with family after bomb threat A bomb threat early on Friday led to the evacuation of the school. Students were bused off campus.

Luiz Torres, Connor Welch and Kadaijah Scott were in class during third period when they heard the announcement to hold in place.

They didn't give it much thought. "I thought it was a joke," said Torres, a junior. Mini lockdown drills and hold-in-place drills are regular part of life at Eastridge High School in Irondequoit, the students said. The school has about 975 students in grades 9 to 12.

The bell rang for the next class, and the announcement came to still hold in place. Teachers were instructed to check their email.

"Now I'm a little nervous," said Scott, a senior. The hold in place lasted for about 20 minutes.

Torres saw on Snapchat that buses and police cars had arrived at the school. Others saw them through the windows. That's when students knew that something was up.

The next announcement was that school was being evacuated, and students were to leave their backpacks behind. Classrooms were dismissed one by one, exiting the building in straight lines, many of the students without coats in temperatures hovering around 36 degrees.

Scott, who was in the library, said that she was among the last to evacuate, and some students became anxious at the time it was taking to depart.

The buses filled with students crossed the street to Regal Culver Ridge Plaza.

The evacuation was spurred by a threat that the school received at 9:45 a.m. While officials didn't reveal the way in which the threat was communicated, Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter confirmed it was a bomb threat.

"We deemed the threat to be serious enough that we evacuated the building," said Dave Yates, director of communications for the East Irondequoit School District.

Eastridge High bomb threat evacuates school East Irondequoit director of communications Dave Yates and Irondequoit police would not elaborate on the threat.

The school called 911. The Irondequoit Police Department then reached out to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and the Rochester Police Department, who arrived at the school with bomb-sniffing dogs.

As law enforcement and dogs searched the school, robocalls went out to the parents to alert them to the situation. Many parents and other relatives picked up students at the buses; they had to present a photo ID to claim them.

'My heart has been pounding a mile a minute'

Most of the students departing the buses seemed unfazed by the day's events, more concerned about having missed lunch than any threat.

Scott was one of the few students wearing a winter coat. "I never take mine off," she said, and was happy that she had been prepared. She took the day's events in stride — her grandmother who came to pick her up displayed more emotion — but she did reflect on yesterday's shooting on Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California.

"I don't have a clear vision of what I would do if something actually happened," she said.

Margie Lovett-Scott, her grandmother, had been heading to the Dollar Tree at the plaza when she saw the buses and police cars in the parking lot.

"I saw the commotion," she said. She called her son, who was across town and relayed was going on. "My heart has been pounding a mile a minute."

'When I grew up, we didn't have to do this kind of stuff'

She was relieved to find her granddaughter — she was one of the few who gave their oftentimes prickly teenagers a hug — and was glad to see that the students were calm. But she was concerned by the day's events.

"It's playing out all over the country," she said. "When I grew up, we didn't have to do this kind of stuff."

After for 1½ hours, the students who hadn't been collected were returned to the school.

"After an extensive search of the school, the school was deemed safe," said Alan Laird, captain for the Irondequoit Police Department.

"We were extremely cautious," said Yates of the school district. "The nature of the world today, I think erring on the side of caution is probably the best course that we could take. That's what we decided to do."

Parents praised the school district for its handling of the matter and for its communications. They also were grateful that their children were able to reach them via cellphone.

Veronica Chiesi-Brown, parent of one of the students, was glad to see her daughter remained calm, but "it freaks me out a little bit," she said. "This should never be treated as normal."

TRACYS@GANNETT.COM