BEXLEY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
SUPERINTENDENT’S NOTEBOOK
By Dr. Mike Johnson
10/5/2010
School District Focused on Safety
Community members may have noticed that all Bexley school district personnel wear
district identification badges. Since a particular incident in my first year in Bexley, I have
strongly recommended that they be worn during the school day. Here is a brief history
behind this requirement.
In October 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attack, an individual placed a device that looked
like a bomb in the Cassingham Elementary hallway and then left the building. A similar
device was placed in the lobby of Children’s Hospital on the same morning at
approximately the same time. As it turned out, the devices were planted to create a
diversion for six people to rob a local bank.
As you can imagine, this incident caused a considerable amount of chaos for Children’s
Hospital and our school district. We evacuated the building and eventually moved all
students off site, to safe points where parents and their children were reunited.
First responders from the Columbus and Bexley Police Department, as well as several
units from the Columbus Fire Department, the Franklin County Hazardous Materials
Unit and the Franklin County Bomb Squad were dispatched to the Cassingham
Complex. Throughout most of the day, the fake device confounded these first
responders, who originally thought it was an explosive and then that it was a bioterrorism device because the wires and packaging were attached to an aerosol can. Our
facility was finally cleared for occupancy at about 3:00pm, a full six hours after the
device was left in the school.
After the incident, the school district and related first responders met to debrief. Officials
representing the first responders made a number of recommendations for the school
district to follow, such as: staff wearing name tags during the school day; the securing
of all doors during the school day in a manner that would restrict entry into the building
during the school day; and the establishment of surveillance procedures, including
observing strangers in and around the building and installing additional surveillance
cameras.
These recommendations were made to prevent, to the greatest extent possible, a
similar or even worse event from occurring in the future. Should an event occur in the
future that would require an evacuation or a lockdown of our schools, the first
responders would want to be able to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys to the
greatest extent possible. Staff’s wearing district ID badges would greatly assist the first
responders as they communicate and issue commands for us to follow.
Some may think that these measures are extreme because an event like this will not
occur again. I remind community members that a SWAT team was dispatched to a
house near the Cassingham Complex just a few years ago, causing us to lock down the
facility at the end of the school day. This incident motivated us to implement our OneCall-Now System. The system is intended to provide accurate communications in era
when almost everyone has a cell phone.
Please make it a common practice to be vigilant and make sure all doors in our school
buildings are closed and secured during the school day. Deny access to anyone if you
are inside the building, even if you know the person. I have directed our staff not to let
anyone into the building during the school day. I ask you to make it a habit to use our
designated entry points and sign-in procedures for the safety and welfare of our children
and staff.
Dr. Mike Johnson serves as Superintendent of Bexley City Schools.