East Ridge High School takes steps to prevent written bathroom threats

EAST RIDGE, Tennessee(WDEF) – A recent wave of school threats in Hamilton County have prompted one school to take action to prevent copycat threats.

East Ridge High School has begun locking certain bathrooms to keep students out while classes are in session.

“We told the teachers, no hall passes out because we needed to preserve instructional time and so the kids needed to be in class, so for the safety of the students, we needed them to stay in class during that time,” said Principal Tammy Helton.

Locking the bathrooms while class is in session is also a calculative move to prevent a student from writing threats on the walls.

“Over the last week, we locked two of the bathrooms upstairs and two of the bathrooms downstairs to try to mainstream the ones students were going to. That still leaves like 10 bathrooms around the campus that the students have to use.”

In recent weeks, written threats have been discovered on bathroom walls at Ooltewah High School which triggered a wave of created copycat threats at other school in the district. Fortunately, authorities have determined the threats to be hoaxes.

While News 12 was interviewing Principal Tammy Helton, LFO High School which is only four miles away in Fort Oglethorpe was being evacuated after a bomb threat.

“A student found a threatening message on a bathroom wall at LFO High School today and reported it to the administrators. The administrators immediately contacted the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office and they came in to investigate the threat,” said Catoosa County Schools Superintendent Denia Reese.

The threat turned out to be a hoax and all the children returned back to class.