Schools evacuated following bomb threat

Daily Dunklin Democrat

SENATH, Mo. -- Senath-Hornersville students were evacuated from all buildings after the superintendent's office received a bomb threat call.

Superintendent Keith Robertson said his secretary, Tina Davis, answered the phone, and a "female voice said, 'There is a bomb at your school, there is a bomb at your school' and hung up."

Robertson said because the caller didn't specify which school was in danger, all schools in the Senath-Hornersville District were evacuated.

Robertson said the Dunklin County sheriff, highway patrol and the juvenile officer swept the schools and checked the buses. Nothing was found during the search.

Robertson said his first call was to Sheriff Bob Holder.

Robertson said there were some leads in the bomb threat though he could not discuss them. He said the sheriff's department was investigating the matter and that he planned to ask that the culprit be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Holder said he thought the call came through the superintendent's office around 10:50 a.m. from a pay phone in Hornersville.

Holder said, "An individual in the Hornersville downtown area at the time the call was made stated she saw a heavy-set woman in maroon pants and a flower-type top -- possibly a home health care or hospital-type uniform -- making a call from the phone. She left the area of the phone in a maroon or red colored van."

Students were in the middle of taking the MAP test, Robertson said, when the threat was received.