Students, parents and educators know the drill by now.

The emergency text alert of a bomb threat goes out, forcing caregivers to scramble, cutting the school day short and spreading fear among students, parents and educators alike. Multiple schools across Northeast Pennsylvania have been evacuated and/or closed due to threats on five different weekdays since classes resumed in September. On one occasion, those local threats were part of a nationwide scam that targeted 150 U.S. schools.

The incidents interfere with students’ progress, inconvenience parents and sow anxiety across the community. And they put school administrators in the unenviable and difficult position of weighing student safety against maintaining normalcy, knowing that these threats are almost certainly bogus, but also knowing that making the wrong call could lead to tragedy.

The reaction of local educators during this latest rash of threats has not been uniform. The Scranton School District, for example, chose to keep students in school with heightened security when threats led other regional schools to send students home earlier this month.

Perhaps it’s time for other school districts to consider Scranton’s approach.

The state Department of Education requires all schools and school districts to develop emergency plans, coordinate with local law enforcement, conduct regular safety drills and regularly assess the security of their buildings. But the decision on whether to close schools in reaction to threats is left up to individual districts.

In Washington state, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which oversees all K-12 schools, has adopted a series of best practices that recommends against an automatic evacuation in the case of a bomb threat “unless a bomb is obvious.”

“Staying in the school may be the best option,” the agency advises on its website.

That didn’t stop three school districts in eastern Washington from closing all their buildings and sending their students home after they received an email suggesting a bomb threat in April.

But a fourth district chose an alternative called “Secure and Teach” in which all students remain indoors, outside doors are locked and classes continue.

Some parents and teachers might be uncomfortable with that approach. But if repeated fake bomb threats continue to interrupt classes, schools should at least consider other options, such as finding facilities nearby where students can be evacuated while law enforcement assures the safety of their buildings in anticipation of returning kids to class.

Automatically closing schools when threats are received probably encourages future occurrences and even with the expanded remote study options available since the COVID pandemic, students will undoubtedly fall behind when in-school instruction is continually disrupted.

These are difficult decisions best made on a case-by-case basis by the professionals who run our schools. But it is at least worth discussing whether, under certain circumstances, we can keep students safe, secure and still in their classrooms when pranksters strike.

Scranton Times-Tribune