Classes to resume Friday at Wauconda HS after bomb threat

FOX 32 NEWS - Police have two Wauconda High School students in custody after they allegedly made threats against the school.

Charges are pending against the two students, one accused of making a verbal threat and the other of writing it.

Students say the threats have been talked about, but no one thought it could turn into an evacuation of the school.

"We didn't know what was going on, the teachers didn't know either. It was just random,” said student Jorge Arreguin.

Students at Wauconda High School were placed on a hard lockdown just before 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon. That means no one was allowed in or out.

The school called police to report a possible bomb threat. When officers arrived, they were taken to a bathroom where there was writing on the wall.

"Something to the effect of, 'a bomb is going to go off at 1:30 in the afternoon,'" said Officer Heather Cognac of the Wauconda Police Department.

Wauconda police were also told that another student made a similar verbal threat in a classroom. That’s when the school and police decided to evacuate.

“There was just a bunch of people not taking it seriously and then when this happened today, people were still joking around. And when we got evacuated, everyone like seemed to get more like serious and actually worry about what's going on,” said student Megan Lair.

All students were bused to the chapel in Grayslake. Some parents were upset the school didn't reach out to them as early as possible about the evacuation.

"Initially I thought that was odd. We've gotten other alerts sooner. But, after thinking about it, especially because they put up the address of where the kids were, I figured it was a safety thing,” said parent Heidi Kotarba.

Bomb detection dogs from Waukegan and the Great Lakes Naval Base searched the area and found no device.

Whether or not this was a joke, that doesn't matter to police. 

"We take all those things seriously, as does the school and we will investigate and then it will potentially end up with criminal charges,” said Officer Cognac.

One juvenile student was charged with a felony count of disorderly conduct and was taken to the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. A second juvenile student was charged with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct and released to a parent.

The superintendent released a message through the school's website saying that classes will resume Friday.