Schools evacuated due to bomb threat

HORNERSVILLE, Mo. -- A phone call to the Senath-Hornersville Middle School office caused the Senath-Hornersville district to evacuate all three of its buildings and dismiss school early.

According to district superintendent Yancy Poorman, the middle school office received a bomb threat at approximately 1:05 p.m. Wednesday.

Although the middle school at Hornersville received the threat, the district evacuated each of the buildings at Senath as well as Hornersville.

"When you are responsible for people's children, you can't take the chance," Poorman said. "We had all of our buildings evacuated by 1:15 or 1:20 and our students were dismissed by 1:40."

Poorman praised his administrative staff for their efforts during the event.

Response praised

"The building principals were super," Poorman said. "It is a tough situation on the principals and they handled it tremendously."

He also praised the district patrons.

"The community and parents were wonderful," Poorman said. "We were able to just point and direct them to their children. Everything operated very smoothly."

The students whose parents did not pick them up returned home on buses. A few students, 10 to 13 according to Poorman, had to return to school and call to have their parents pick them up.

After a search of the premises nothing was found and the students returned to school on Thursday.

The Dunklin County Sheriff's Office also returned to the district to meet with school officials. The investigation into the call is on-going.

A $1,000 reward has been offered by the school district for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the caller.