April 24, 2008 09:51 pm
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By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
COLUMBUS, Kan. — A bomb threat Wednesday at a Columbus school has revived a dispute over jurisdiction between the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department and the Columbus Police Department.
Columbus police Chief Chuck Sharp said his department wasn’t notified of the bomb threat at Central School until hours after it was discovered by a pupil at the start of the school day, though the school is in the city.
Undersheriff Kent Soucy said the school resource officer, who is a sheriff’s deputy, notified a Columbus police officer shortly after the threat was discovered, and that a sheriff’s dispatcher notified Sharp personally.
“There was no intent to keep him (Sharp) out of the loop,” Soucy said.
Sharp disputed that, saying no one from the Sheriff’s Department notified him at all, and that his officer wasn’t notified until 1:50 p.m., hours after the school had been locked down.
School district Superintendent Ken Jones said a pupil at the start of the school day notified officials after discovering the words “bomb here” written at the top of a locker in the girls locker room in the gym. Central School has pupils in grades four through eight.
Jones said the school resource officer, Deputy Rick Comer was notified. The gym, which has some classrooms, was evacuated. The campus was locked down while authorities searched the gym. Nothing was found.
Jones said the locker room is encased in concrete.
“We didn’t feel evacuation of the campus was warranted,” Jones said. He said the campus remained in lockdown throughout the day Wednesday.
He said parents were notified of the lockdown via an automated phone notification system. He said some parents were upset because a glitch in the system apparently caused them to receive the notification several hours after it was issued.
Jones said the school district relied on the school resource officer to notify whatever authorities needed to be notified.
Jones said he is aware that the sheriff and the police chief are not on good terms.
Sharp said he checked with all his officers, and that the first contact from the Sheriff’s Department came at 1:50 p.m. He said parents were calling him with questions and complaints, but he couldn’t respond to them because he was kept in the dark. He said a similar situation happened when there was a bomb threat at the high school several weeks ago.
“There’s a lot of people upset over it,” Sharp said.
Sharp said too much time elapsed before the Police Department was notified, and that could result in a tragedy if a future situation turned out to be real.
“If it’s personal or political, this has got to stop because we all have to work together,” Sharp said.
Soucy, who has filed as a candidate for sheriff in this year’s election, said some confusion probably occurred because most of the communication was over cell phones and little information came through dispatch over the radio.
He said he would have expected the Columbus police officer who was notified to notify the police chief.
Soucy said he would take personal responsibility to call Sharp to notify him of future incidents.
Sheriff Steve Norman made jurisdiction an issue in October, when he issued a fax to the police chiefs in Columbus and Galena telling them not to respond to situations outside their city limits.
Person of interest
Undersheriff Kent Soucy said a possible person of interest has been identified in the bomb threat, but the investigation is continuing.
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