A bomb threat at Rockville’s Robert Frost Middle School turned into a sun-soaked nightmare when a failed evacuation plan left students stranded outside for two hours.
Of the 1,300 students and staff baking in the 90-degree heat, 24 required treatment “on-site by emergency medical technicians for various heat-related illnesses,” according to a letter sent to parents. No one was taken to the hospital, the letter said.
“It was really, really, really hot,” said Patrick Bernardo, a sixth grader at Frost.
“A bunch of people just kept passing out,” he said. “There was a cart with people on it that they were taking somewhere.”
Ambulances attended to students who felt dizzy or dehydrated, and diabetic students were singled out for extra care.
Patrick and most of his classmates sat in their “fire-drill lines” at the edges of the schools’ athletic fields from about noon until 2 p.m. Wednesday, without food or enough water for everyone. Lunch was served at about 2:15 p.m., after the bomb threat was found to be a hoax.
Andrea Bernardo, Patrick’s mother and a vice president for the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations, expressed overall confidence in the school’s leadership under Principal Joey Jones, but frustration with the failure of the evacuation plan.
“It just shows that for as much planning as we do, we’re still not well-enough planned,” she said.
Normally, Frost students are supposed to seek shelter at nearby Thomas Wootton High School during emergencies. Wootton is adjacent to Frost, connected by a pathway. In the letter to parents, Jones said that students did not walk to Wootton because officials estimated the bomb search would last only 45 minutes, instead of the actual two hours.
Dana Tofig, spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools, attributed some of the timing troubles to the bomb squad.
“It took over an hour for the bomb dogs to arrive and more than 40 minutes for the search,” he said.
Tofig acknowledged the Wootton Booster Club for bringing water to students who needed it, but declined to respond to questions about the failure of the evacuation plan.
Judi Casey, president of the Frost PTA, said the schools did the best they could in a difficult situation, and allowed for lessons learned.
“What would make sense is for both [Frost and Wootton] to have emergency supplies of some sort” to share with each other, Casey said, and to maintain a more complete list of students with unique medical needs.
