At 7:36 a.m. on Wednesday, December 13, the Vallivue School District received a threat through email stating that there were bombs in all Vallivue schools that would be activated in a few hours. In response to this threat, the Vallivue School District evacuated all buildings and sent students and staff home, canceling school for the day. According to the investigation by both Nampa and Caldwell police departments, this was not a legitimate threat. Authorities spent much of the day on Wednesday clearing every building to ensure that each school was safe.
This threat was sent to multiple districts across the Treasure Valley, but Vallivue and Emmett were the only districts to evacuate and cancel school. According to Caldwell Police Captain Robert Rosin who spoke to KTVB news, “Ultimately, this disrupts students’ ability to learn in the classroom. Our job, our duty, our mission as school resource officers is to make sure that students can come to school and learn peacefully and safely,” Rosin said. “These types of events are extremely disrupting, to not only police department functions, but to the overall mission of education in childhood.”
Vallivue High School was evacuated at approximately 7:50 a.m. via the intercom. Staff and students who were present at school went outside and waited for further directions. Shortly after evacuating, staff and students were instructed to leave the property and go home for the day. Almost all buses were directed to turn around and take students back home while a few students had to wait for their bus to return to the school and pick them up. VHS staff members stood at the parking lot entrances and alerted students and families to the closure as some had not seen the message before driving to school.
In a video sent to families and posted on social media later that afternoon, Assistant Superintendent Joey Palmer, Deputy Chief Shawn Sopoaga from Caldwell and Deputy Chief Curt Shackle from Nampa discussed the events, emphasizing that it would be safe for students to return to school on Thursday and how serious these threats are taken.
“These are taken serious[ly] and there’s a lot of resources from the local, the state, and the federal side of law enforcement that will be looking into this and investigating it,” Shackle said. “You could spend some serious time in prison if you are found to be perpetrating one of these hoax[es].” Sopoaga stated that he believed the district made the right decision to cancel school.
All Vallivue students returned to school today and resumed normal operations.
