Bomb threats at schools

Even top school administrators can't escape bomb threats.

Dr. Dana Bedden experienced one on his first day of school in Richmond County.

It happened on August 13.

Bedden, who had taken the reins of the school system in Augusta less than two weeks earlier, had just arrived at Glenn Hills Middle School for a visit when it happened.

"I'm pulling up to one of our middle schools and they were just going through a bomb threat, evacuations, as soon as I pulled into the parking lot." He said he hoped "that this is not an indication of what the year's going to look like, that we're not going to have a repeat of last year."

The Richmond County school system reported numerous bomb threats last year. Officials say 70 of those threats occurred at only two schools.

A bomb threat also happened at a high school in Jefferson, Georgia, in October, just as Kathy Cox, the state schools superintendent, was paying a visit there.

Thomasville: youth confesses to bomb threat

A teen in Thomasville confessed early Tuesday afternoon to calling in a bomb threat at Thomas County Central High School (TCCHS).

The 15-year-old male, a former TCCHS student, who attended an alternative school, confessed during questioning by Thomas County Sheriff’s Office investigators.

The bomb threat was called in at 6:45 p.m. Monday. The caller left the threat on a telephone answering machine. The message said a bomb planted in the school would blow up the building. The caller also cursed school officials.

School telephone records were subpoenaed, and a trace led to a cell phone. The source of the call had been determined within a couple of hours of discovery of the message.

The teen is charged with terrorist threats and acts.

“More charges probably will be pending after a meeting with the district attorney’s office,” said Capt. John Richards, sheriff’s office chief of operations.

“Children need to realize that with today’s technology, they can’t get away with bomb threats anymore.”

Click here for more GPB coverage of similar threats.

(The Associated Press)

Bomb threat makeup days considered in Augusta

School officials in eastern Georgia are fed up with a rash of bomb threats this year.

The threats and resulting evacuations often cost money and class time, so much class time that students in Augusta may face an extended school year.

So, like makeup days for snow, they're considering recouping the lost class time by requiring students to stay in school longer during the school year.

Many of the the threats happen at middle schools.

Officials suspect that students make most of the threats.

They hope the makeup days would create peer pressure for the threats to stop, since the makeup days would cut into the students' summer vacation.

But some school board members are questioning whether extending the school year is the most appropriate and effective way to stop the problem, since a longer school year would mean an added cost to the school system.

They're also looking at other options, such as whether the drivers licenses of students caught making the threats can be removed, and if their parents can be fined.

State schools take on bomb threats

Officials in Augusta say their schools are getting far too many bomb threats.

They're joining school boards across the state in an effort to punish the parents of students who make those threats.

Officials say 70 bomb threats came in to schools alone in Richmond County last year.

The public safety response to each threat typically costs the county about $4000 to $8000.

The Georgia School Boards Association says bomb threats are a problem across the state.

Now, they want the legislature to pass a law holding parents accountable for a student's terroristic threats, school violence and theft.

"When we're taking and diverting resources from safety personnel to respond to a false alarm, that means someone else is not getting service and we are passing on a burden of cost to taxpayers that shouldn't be there, because of something that was not a real issue to them," says Dana Bedden, the Richmond County school superintendent.

The threats also disrupt classes, since principals often evacuate the students.

Suspects are often students, according to officials with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

In Richmond County, officials say some of the suspects are middle schoolers.

Teen in bomb scare to be tried as adult

A 15-year-old boy accused of taking a bomb to a Jefferson school in April, will be tried as an adult. That decision was made by Piedmont Judicial Circuit Court Judge Kevin Guidry after listening to testimony in a closed hearing on Monday.

Jefferson's police chief testified that the boy made "an adult decision" in bringing a Mason jar with black powder and a detonation trigger to the Jackson County Comprehensive High School on April 11th. Authorities say the real bomb had enough power to kill or severely injure everyone in the school's main administrative office. The school was evacuated, although the bomb never went off. The boy faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault and making terrorist threats.

School bomb threat disrupts state official visit

The visit of state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox to a northeast Georgia high school Wednesday was interrupted by a bomb threat. Cox had just arrived at the Jackson County Comprehensive High School in Jefferson, when the district ordered evacuation of all 13 of its schools. After the building was cleared, Cox returned to the school for her visit. Authorities say the threat was called in by a Jefferson City High School student, and they have a specific suspect in mind.

Teen pleads guilty to bomb in school

A 16-year-old pleaded guilty this morning to taking a bomb into a northeast Georgia high school. Andrew Thomas Criswell of Pendergrass was 15 last April when he walked into Jackson County Comprehensive High School’s main office with a bomb. 17-hundred students and staff were forced to flee the building. Charged as an adult, Criswell faces at least 3 years in prison, and a most 45 years.

Teen will stand trial as adult for alleged bomb

A 16-year-old student faces trial as an adult next month in northeast Georgia on charges that he took a bomb into a high school. Andrew Thomas Criswell of Pendergrass is accused of taking the bomb to Jackson County Comprehensive High School's main office April 12th. No injuries were reported, but school officials evacuated 1,700 students because of the threat. Criswell was charged as a juvenile, but a juvenile court judge transferred the case to Superior Court, where a grand jury indicted Criswell in September.

CSU: Man arrested for bomb threats, guns

CSU police. (CSU)

Columbus State University Police arrested a Phenix City man Monday morning, just after they believe he made his fifth bomb threat against the institution.

Lawrence E. Price, 45, of 67 McMurrian Drive, was charged with five counts of making terrorist threats, and one count each of carrying a weapon to school, possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime and obstruction of a peace officer, according to a CSU statement.

University Police identified a location where the calls had originated and during an undercover operation Monday morning, and identified the suspect after a call indicating the presence of a bomb at CSU was made to the Columbus Police Department and to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Police closed in and arrested Price in a university parking lot.

Inside Price’s 1997 pickup truck, officials found two rifles, a shotgun, a small handgun, a compound bow, an axe, an antique saw, three bottles of alcohol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. A Bomb Squad dog checked Price and his truck thoroughly and found no indication of explosives. University Police alerted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Phenix City Police.

The incident follows two bomb threats against the university in the last two weeks. Officials evacuated the faculty building for several hours after the second call.

The Columbus Police Department, the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, the county’s bomb squad, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took part in the investigation.

Price was enrolled in the biology program, the statement said.

Click here for related GPB coverage, and here for coverage of CSU affairs.

Teen sentenced for bomb incident

A teenager accused of bringing a bomb to school last spring and threatening to blow it up has been sentenced to three years' confinement. 16-year-old Andrew Criswell of Pendergrass will be held at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center until he turns 17. Then a judge will decide where he will serve the rest of his sentence. Criswell pleaded guilty to walking into the Jackson County Comprehensive High School with a homemade bomb.

Student faces 17 counts for bomb threat

Authorities in northeast Georgia have charged a student with 17 counts in connection with a bomb threat made earlier this month. On October 3rd, state schools superintendent Kathy Cox had just walked through the front doors of Jackson County Comprehensive High School in Jefferson, when the school was ordered evacuated by district officials. In all, 17 schools were cleared in Jackson, Jefferson, and Commerce school districts. Prosecutors have not decided whether they will try to prosecute the 15-year-old in Jackson’s Superior Court, or Juvenile Court.

Bomb scare was for real

A homemade device that set off a bomb scare last month at a northeast Georgia high school was a real bomb, according to police. Jefferson police say a 15-year-old boy walked into Jackson County High’s main office with a Mason jar packed with black powder connected to a detonation trigger. They say the bomb had a blast radius of 30 feet. Thankfully, officers talked the boy into surrendering. He was charged as a juvenile with possession of a destructive device, aggravated assault and terrorists threats and acts, and a judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

Dalton bombing: officials meet with residents

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation bomb technician works on a a bomb robot near the scene of a bomb blast in Dalton, Ga., Friday, Oct. 17, 2008. Four people were injured when a bomb went off in a law office. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

The Dalton police chief and district attorney are meeting with the public to discuss the Friday bombing of a law firm in the small north Georgia town.

The Sunday meeting is taking place at Dalton High School.

Officials and members of the state's crisis response team are on hand. Organizers are encouraging law enforcement, emergency personnel, counselors and teachers to attend.

An F.B.I. agent searches property belonging to the suspect in the explosion at a small-town law firm in northern Georgia in Dalton, Ga., Friday, Oct. 17, 2008. The suspect died in the blast that also injured four people at the office, authorities said. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

A bitter family dispute over property erupted Friday when 78-year-old Lloyd Cantrell threw an explosive into a law firm that represented his son, causing a blast that killed the father and injured four people in the office. One victim, attorney Jim Phillips, is in critical condition at an Augusta burn center.


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(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.

Student arrested on weapons charges

A southeast Georgia teenager faces charges of bringing weapons to school.

Police say the unidentified 16-year-old brought a loaded gun and a knife to Effingham County High School. They arrested him today and he is being held in the Claxton Youth Detention Center.

Authorities say this is an isolated incident and unrelated to a recent bomb threats at the high school.

Lewis Links McCain to Alabama Segregationist

For the past week, rallies for GOP Presidential hopeful John McCain have gotten heated, as a small vocal minority have yelled racial slurs, along with shouting other vulgarities aimed at Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama and other African Americans.

The behavior began in earnest after GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Obama has been “palling around with terrorists.” The remark was a reference to Obama’s relationship with former Weatherman, Bill Ayers, now a Chicago school reformer.

Several major news organizations called Palin’s remarks false and misleading.

After several prominent moderate Republicans began criticizing the campaign for encouraging the ugly behavior, McCain began pushing back on some of the comments. Most notably, McCain corrected one woman who called Obama “an Arab.”

Still, the campaign has openly raised questions about Obama’s faith and commitment to America. And some in the GOP crowds have grown increasingly hostile. As GPB’s Melissa Stiers reported earlier this week, a debate in Macon between Congressional candidates also produced some ugly comments between partisans. One woman shouted out “Bomb Obama.”

Now Atlanta Democratic Congressman and long time civil rights activist John Lewis is calling on the McCain campaign to tone down their rhetoric. In a statement, Lewis warned, “As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy.”

Lewis also linked the McCain tactics to the late Alabama Governor George Wallace, a prominent segregationist and one time Presidential candidate.

“George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.”

The statement throws Lewis in the middle of what is becoming an increasingly ugly, and in some instances racially tinged campaign.

McCain responded personally, issuing a statement that reads “I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.”

McCain also called on Senator Obama to “immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.”

Earlier this week, the McCain campaign also responded publicly to similar criticisms by attacking Obama.

Obama’s campaign responded by saying the Senator doesn’t believe McCain and Wallace are comparable, but added “Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’ "

McCain and Lewis have worked together on major legislation in the past, and McCain has called the Georgia Congressman one of the “wisest men” he knows.

Most of the actions appear to be coming from a minority of supporters. However, reports from the rallies suggest the anger has gotten more intense. Privately, McCain is blaming the ugly turn on Palin, according to a Times Online report.

The rage is concerning for many non-partisan observers. Former Presidential adviser, Harvard educator and CNN contributor David Gergen said last night, “There is free-floating anger that could lead to some violence. I really worry, when you get that kind of rhetoric that you’re getting now, I think it’s imperative that you calm people down.”

$300,000 bond for CSU bomb threat

A Columbus judge has raise a previous bond set for a Columbus State University student accused of threatening to bomb the school.

Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Doug Pullen raised the initial $46,000 bond to $331,000, according to a Ledger-Enquirer newspaper report. Pullen, referring to the raised amount, said:

"I totally disagree with the bond amounts. This is more than reasonable considering what he's accused of doing."

Click here for previous GPB News coverage of this incident, and here for more reports of similar threats at Georgia educational institutions.

Georgia loses two soldiers in Iraq

A Macon Airman was killed in Iraq on Saturday. Airman First Class, Jason Nathan was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Tikrit, Iraq. He was just 22 years old and had been in Iraq since February. According to military officials he was serving as a gunner during a mission with Iraqi police as part of the 48th Security Forces Squadron out of Lakenheath, England.

Nathan graduated from Macon’s Central High School in 2003, and spent one semester at Fort Valley State University before joining the Air Force. His mother says he joined the military after being told he was too young to join the police force. According to his personal web page, when asked what’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you he responded, "Nothing, it’s all in God’s hands."

Nathan was not the only Georgian killed in recent days in Iraq. Marine Staff Sgt. Stephen Wilson of Atlanta was killed during his third deployment, as well as Sgt. First Class William Zapfe based at Fort Stewart. He died when his tank rolled over a roadside bomb.

Supect dead, 4 wounded in Dalton bombing

Police say a bomb blew up at the Dalton, Ga., law office of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham today, killing one and injuring four others. (Courtesy WGCL)

Georgia investigators say a 71-year-old man suspected of setting off an explosion at a small-town law office has died.

Four other people were injured in the explosion that blew out the windows at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham around 10 a.m. Friday.

Police say there was some kind of disturbance at the office before the blast. An officer saw someone get out of a sport utility vehicle and run behind the building. Then something exploded.

Firefighters are still battling a small blaze that flared up after in initial blast.

The suspect's body is still in the building in Dalton, about 25 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Two of the injured were treated at a hospital and released, one was admitted and a fourth was taken to a burn center.

Officials said in a statement that:

“Dalton police received a 911 call regarding a disturbance at the law firm. The first police officer, to arrive on the scene spotted a person in a small SUV. When this person saw the officer, he jumped out of the SUV and ran behind the law firm, at which time the explosion occurred. The police officer was not injured. One fatality has been reported and is still at the scene.

Police Lt. Bruce Frazier said the blast was caused by some type of explosive device. Investigators were looking into a person of interest in the case, but no one had been arrested, he said. He declined to provide more details.

Bomb squads were checking for sweeping the premises for other explosives, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.

Four people hurt in the explosion were in stable condition at Hamilton Medical Center, spokeswoman Emily Michael said. One of the four was being taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said.

The eight-lawyer firm, founded in 1932, works out of a two-story, colonial-style house. Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site. An elementary school across the street was locked down, though it wasn't damaged.

State and federal investigators were assisting local authorities.

(The Associated Press)

Explosion Update

At least one person is dead and still on the scene, while four were severely injured after an explosive device was detonated at a local downtown office.

The explosion was set off at 10 a.m. this morning at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle and Fordham. Local officials are not confirming other media reports that a suspect is in custody, however, Whitfield county official told GPB there’s no need to worry about “a bomber on the loose.”

An employee at the US Post Office next store said the blast rattled the walls, ringing her ears for about fifteen minutes.

The explosion sparked a fire that was extinguished by the afternoon. Three victims were transferred to a Dalton hospital. Two have been released, the third has been admitted and is listed in stable condition. The fourth, told to GPB to be an attorney at the firm, has been flown to the Joseph M. Still burn center in Augusta.

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials are searching the grounds for explosives, with the cooperation of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The agencies prevented Dalton fire crews from responding to the fire. Two bomb squad trucks, along with three fire engines, are still nearby the scene.

The explosion occurred near City Park Elementary in Dalton. The school was briefly on lockdown, before students were evacuated unharmed.

A Dalton city police spokesman says they have contacted a person of interest who was on the scene. There was a disturbance at the law firm. Someone in the firm called 911, and when police showed up at the scene a person in an SUV ran out of is car and behind the building. The explosion occurred immediately afterward.

GPB has learned law enforcement officers are executing a search warrant at a residence in Varnell, a small rural area just north of Dalton. A spokeswoman for the county would not confirm or deny whether the search warrant was part of the investigation.

Beaverdale Road and Prater Mill Road near Varnell is going to be closed for an unknown amount of time. GPB has learned the road closing is connected to the bombing investigation, although spokespeople won't officially confirm the connection.

Ft. Benning: robot UAV's take flight and fight - alone

25 teams flying unmanned robotic aircraft squared off at a international competition at Ft. Benning on Thursday.

The university teams, from Georgia, other states and countries took turns putting their lightweight helicopters and fixed-wing planes through exacting timed trials.

Virginia Tech: Jonathon Gaines with
deployable rolling robot. (Photo: Dave Bender)

It may seem like fun and games, but the competition highlights a growing aspect of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Professor Robert Michaelson heads the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, who sponsored the meet: “What we're doing here with this technology is to create something that's more or less fire and forget. You could go into the mountains of Afghanistan, and the mission could be, 'spy in all caves, and search them to see if there's anybody in them.'”

Georgia Tech's helicopter flew first. The vehicle spotted a target within a building. It then deployed a motorized, two-wheeled, mini-robot that rolled over to a dummy bomb inside a room, and sent back live video -- all without any human guidance.


Georgia Tech crew after their test with
deployable robot. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Update, Thursday afternoon:

"GA Tech completed phase 3 and VA Tech completed phase 2 and are going to attempt phase 3 tomorrow morning. If they both complete phase 3 this year they will be going head-to-head for phase 4 next year and $80,000 will be awarded to the winning school." (via PAO)