Claremore School Leaders Meet To Review Bomb Threat Response

School leaders in Claremore met Wednesday to evaluate their response to the bomb threat and what they can learn.

Some parents were upset they weren't notified for more than an hour after the threat was made.

Some parents said they never received a notification from the school, and learned about the bomb threat from their children or from news reports.

3/28/2018 Related Story: Claremore Bomb Threat Suspect 'Wanted To Test Police', Investigators Say

There was an increased police presence at Claremore Public Schools Wednesday after an active day for students, teachers, and police when a bomb threat prompted the entire district to evacuate.

"I'm just so grateful that it was just a threat," said Jamie Brace with Claremore Public Schools. 

Brace said around noon Tuesday, more than an hour after the threat was made, calls, texts, emails and social media posts were released to inform parents about what was going on.

"We are maximizing all of our mediums to communicate," said Brace. 

Ellery Tapusoa has four kids in the district and said that's not how he found out about the threat.

"My son out of the blue texted his mom and said there was a bomb threat," said Tapusoa. 

Brace said there's a reason the notifications weren't sent to parents right away.

"Our policy is safety first," she said.  

She said the district's number one priority was securing the students and buildings, which meant evacuating students before alerting parents.

"It's important that you don't instill panic," Brace said. 

She said the district is pleased with how it handled the threat.

The superintendent, along with other school administrators, met to discuss what happened and to look at what can be learned from the situation going forward.

Brace said they looked at "what worked, what didn't work, what we can do better, what we need to do again." 

The district said it will follow up on that discussion with the Claremore Police Department.

The district said parents should make sure their contact information is up to date with the school and make sure the school's number doesn’t get blocked accidentally from their phone.