The April 15 building evacuation was issued in response to a bomb threat, according to a report from the Skokie Police Department (SPD) obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The threat was deemed not credible by School Resource Officer (SRO) Nick Larson.

According to SPD, one student overheard two other students speaking in stairwell 3, the stairwell closest to the Oakton Lobby, between 7th and 8th period. At around 1:54 p.m., the student informed special education teacher Kathleen Brandes of what they heard.

“‘Someone is going to blow up the school with dynamite at 3 o’clock,'” the student said, according to the report shared by SPD.

Brandes brought the student to the deans’ office where the student reported the threat to Dean David Hawk. Hawk studied security camera footage but was unable to determine if a threat was mentioned. The report did not specify what time Hawk was informed of the threat, and administration declined to share that information with the NWN.

Director of Security Al Lopez and Principal Jeremy Christian were informed of the threat at 2:52. At 2:54, Dean Sara Solheim contacted Larson to notify him of the threat. She instructed him to go to Hawk’s office. At 3:02, Lopez pulled the fire alarm after determining that there was not enough time to follow the standard bomb threat evacuation procedure. Upon Larson’s arrival, the building was in the process of evacuating. Larson then located Hawk and Lopez.

“Based on the information we had that day, we felt that out of an abundance of caution that evacuating the building was the best decision…We focused on maintaining student and staff safety, while the Skokie Police Department and Officer Larson took over the investigation,” Hawk said.

Students and staff followed West’s former fire drill evacuation procedures by going to designated areas on the east side of the school until they were instructed by administrators and safety staff to make their way to the football field, which is a part of the updated procedure.

Larson spoke to Assistant Superintendent Roszena Haskins at the scene. Haskins believed it was safe for students and staff to enter the building, and Christian made that announcement over the P.A. system in the football stadium.

“We’ve done an after-action review and we’ll continue to do those, we’ll continue to work with law enforcement, building admin and staff to continue to evaluate and assess our safety protocols… we will go back and analyze our protocols and ensure that everybody knows about them,” Haskins said.

Larson spoke to West staff members  Ron Feiereisel, Alexandria Lindwall and Morgan Riegert the evening of the evacuation, none of whom reported hearing the threat directly. Larson also visited the homes of others whose identities were redacted from the police report. One of those individuals did not hear of any threat, and the other only learned of a threat once they were evacuated to the football stadium.

Junior Victoria HooSang was disappointed with how the evacuation was handled.

“I felt like it was unorganized and nobody knew what was going on. Maybe communication with teachers [would have helped] because I’m sure there is a protocol here that could easily be followed if a text or something was sent out to all of the teachers,” HooSang said.

Christian held a meeting to debrief with teachers and staff on the morning of April 16. Three staff members who were present at the meeting individually reported that they were told by Christian that the threat reported was a bomb threat. Christian and other administrators declined to specify the nature of the threat in interviews with the NWN.

Christian made an announcement to students during first period on April 16.

“We made a decision to evacuate the building based on a reported threat with the Skokie Police Department, and we have confirmed that there is no credible threat. This means that there’s no threat to our building…If you hear something, if you see something, I am asking you to say something,” Christian said in the announcement. 

Christian said that there are several areas of improvement for future emergency situations, including finding ways to communicate with staff during an emergency. During the evacuation, the public address system in the football stadium was not working.

“I wanted to provide direction to our students and provide direction to our staff members, but I couldn’t,” Christian said. “I think that’s my job as a principal, to continue to look at what we are doing and what we can do to be better.”

According to Larson, no arrests were made, and the investigation has concluded.