Terry Foster: If Your Kids' School Is Threatened, Do You Let Them Go The Next Day?

By Terry Foster
@TerryFoster971

My family returned from a difficult trip only to discover that my daughter Celine's high school had received a bomb threat early Wednesday morning.

A 15 year-old student is in custody for threatening through the Internet to blow up West Bloomfield High School. I don't care how young the alleged perpetrator is, nor do I care about impending pleas that he didn't really mean it.

This kid must be prosecuted. If he is guilty, then throw him behind bars. If he is innocent, then you let him go.

Threats of terrorism must be taken seriously. If you allow this kid to slide then copy cats will follow at other schools in the area.

This also brings up a tough question for parents. If a threat is made to your child's school do you allow them to go to school that day? Many parents kept their children home. Someone sent me a photo of a half-empty classroom and there are estimates that 400 kids did not attend West Bloomfield on Wednesday.

Celine was one of them because she was jet-lagged following a 25 hour travel day from Las Vegas. She and my son Brandon had little energy.

However, if she were up to it I don't know if we would have allowed her to attend. My gut feeling said that the school administrators had things on lock down. But this is my child who I love very much and would consult with my wife. My guess is we would have let her attend school.

I applaud the school district and police for swift action.

Someone made pretty serious threats, similar to ones we've read before during mass shootings at other schools. The kid claimed he made a bomb along with his uncle and wanted to hurt people.

It is scary stuff. We've had mass shootings in schools and movie theaters. And maybe this is wrong as a parent, I do not worry every time I say so-long to my kids in the morning or when I take them to the mall or the movies. I still have faith in our schools and my community.

However, you cannot break the peace with any threats even if you are kidding around or looking for an excuse to not attend class. This kid must be punished if he made the threats. At this point I don't care what the excuse is.

We must send a message this won't be tolerated.

(Foster can be reached at Terry.Foster@cbsradio.com)