There was an explosion of activity at the Greenbrier Football Stadium on September 25 as the entire school was evacuated. This was due to an anonymous bomb threat made to the school at noon of that day. The call was made by an automated voice message, and the caller hung up after the threat was made. Of course nobody knew this at the time, because we were all wondering why the fire alarm went off for the second time that week.
Personally, I was not worried when the alarm went off. Even though I jumped in my seat due to the sudden wailing and flashing lights, I was almost relieved. I was in the middle of a Math Analysis and Trigonometry test and would have gladly traded my left foot to get out of there. Though the fire alarm was not what I had in mind, I took my blessings when I could.
In the hallways, everyone was chatting with their friends and pushing smaller people out of the way so they could leave quicker. Even though everyone was acting like it was a typical fire drill, something was not right. We just had our weekly fire drill the day before, and this one was during fifth period, a lunch period. Principal Dr. Raymond Pasi would never allow a fire drill during a lunch period. To make matters even more suspicious, there were at least three police cars as soon as we walked out the doors. At this point, I was wondering if the administration had found someone running a drug ring operation in one of the science storage rooms.
Alas, that question was still to be answered. After standing on the fringes of the school property for a couple of minutes with the photography students having a heyday with their fancy cameras, we were all finally herded to the football field. This is the point where the rumors started flying, each more crazier and illegal than the last. Did someone spill dangerous chemicals again? Was there actually a fire in the building? Was someone arrested? This continued all the way to the football field and did little more than freak people out. However, this did not last long.
The idea of our school having a picnic while under a bomb threat sounds impossible. Who on earth would have a good time under those circumstances? However, the school proved that common sense wrong, and most of us had a good time. I would say that the guy who started playing his electric guitar is what really kicked it off, but it was probably our attitudes towards the whole situation.
Despite the fact that the school was faced with an unknown, possibly dangerous, situation, the students did not panic and start running around in circles. That would have been annoying and tiring, but mostly it would have killed the mood. Instead, the spring school fair was thrown early. We pulled out our instruments and played music. There were at least four game of hacky sac going on, inhibited by school hall rules. Even the ultimate frisbee team got in on the action and showcased their skills.
There was no mass panic of the people, and when we finally did find out what happened, everyone was still calm and continued on. People were more disgruntled that the parents were notified before they were than by the actual threat. However, our early spring fair was cut short with the announcement to return to our classes. As the hundreds of students shuffled off the field, one thing was on their mind: no one is ever going to believe this.
