School Bomb Threats

About Bomb Threats:

Motives: There are many supposed motives for bomb threats, among them: humor, self assertion, anger, manipulation, agression, hate and devaluation, imnipotence, fantasy, psychotic distortion, ideology, retaliation and no doubt there are many more. Other motives is generally limited to violence.

Delivery: Bomb threats are delivered in various ways: by face-to-face, on a student's website, letter, or even a gesture. The most common means of delivering a bomb threat is by telephone.

How seriously should a theat be taken? The seriousness of a bomb threat is self evident because of the potential for widespread destruction that can be wrought by a bomb, compared to other weapons that are usually aimed at particular targets. 90% of bomb threats are hoaxes (either there is no bomb at all or the "bomb" is fake.)

Specificity of Bomb Threats: In general, the specificity of the bomb threat is the best guide to its seriousness. The specificity of a bomb threat may be assessed according to:

  • place and time indicated in the threat
  • description of the bomb to be used
  • specific targets mentioned or indicated
  • reason given or implied in the threat.

Types of bomb threats in schools:

 

Type Threat rationale Vague threat Specific threat
Conditional "Do this or else." "Put back the candy machines or I'll bomb the school.: Student expressing outrage, probably no bomb unless there has been a series of such threats. " If you don't put back the vending machines, a bomb will go off in the cafeteria at 12 o'clock today."
Instrumental Threat made in order to achieve another usually immediate goal. Offender calls school and says, " There's a bomb in the building" and immediately hangs up. Student calls in false bomb threat in order to disrupt classes and get the day off. " I've put a bomb in the school set to go off at 10:00. Burn down the school!"