There was a bomb threat at Spring Valley Elementary School on the morning of Aug. 11. Fortunately no bomb was ever found, but Junction City police did not arrive on the scene until 30 minutes after what they termed an unsubstantiated bomb threat came in from the school district. They did not respond with a lights and sirens running during morning traffic because they did not want to endanger the community traveling across town.
JC Post has asked Sheriff Dan Jackson for his department's side of the story. He noted there was never a call dispatched out but he was notified from other sources that there was a bomb threat with no police presence at the school. Jackson ordered his day shift to immediately respond and they went to the scene with police responding soon after. The Sheriff noted that when the S-O personnel went to the school they notified dispatch and asked if there was any information about the threat. Police then responded as well.
Multiple searches were also done of the building including some K-9's from other agencies.
Jackson noted that you hear about an unsubstantiated or substantiated threat. "If a bomb threat gets called in I will treat it as it's substantiated until we unsubstantiate it by getting everybody out of the school, doing a search, bringing in bomb dogs. I don't think we can just say because it came in over social media that we don't have to take it seriously."
Following an earlier police report that a small number of sheriff's personnel had earlier been at the school leaving their children to attend classes, the Sheriff's Department confirmed no Deputies have children attending there.
Police Captain Cory Odell did note that students were not allowed into the school and were kept at a safe distance. Police Chief John Lamb said that police have assessed their policies and there are things that have been identified where changes need to be made. He also stated, "There are some things that we have identified that we can improve on." The chief issued his comments after an after action review of the matter.