A bomb threat, a walkout, and empty halls at ACHS
Friday, Jan. 30, 8:30 a.m.: The drop-off line in the parking lot of American Canyon High School is unusually short. Hallways are quiet. In some classrooms, one-fifth out of the usual students are at desks, eyeing each other. In one room, a single student sits facing the teacher.
Several high schoolers who spoke with the Current estimated that hundreds of the 1600+ enrolled students were absent from ACHS for all of Friday. According to Napa Valley Unified School District reps, exact numbers were not yet available, but by 3 p.m. Friday, it was estimated that there was a 3.5% increase in absences across the 16,000-student district — around 560 kids.
Two events led to those numbers: Wednesday’s bathroom bomb threat and Friday’s student walkout, which saw a couple dozen students leave school with anti-ICE protest signs during “brunch” period at 10:20 a.m.
On Wednesday, a bomb threat reading “I’m finna bomb TS school on Friday, FR” was discovered in a women’s bathroom. Though law enforcement and school officials have yet to find any evidence of a bomb after performing two full sweeps of the campus, scores of parents kept their kids home from school on Friday.
“It didn’t feel like a normal school day,” said Dani Smith, a sophomore at ACHS. “There were six kids in my first period.” Smith had planned to stay home from school that day due to Wednesday’s threat. Because she had an exam in her advanced placement class, she decided to go, but left shortly after the test.
During first period, Smith said, her class and the neighboring Spanish class opted to join forces and have a movie day to watch the film “Under the Same Moon.”
“It’s about a little boy coming to America to be with his mom,” said Smith.
Smith’s mother, Anne, said that she was worried for the kids’ safety after a threat, even if it was ultimately unfounded.
“I told her, ‘Nana wants you to come home anyway,” said Anne Smith. “We had a talk first. I said: ‘Don’t go in the quad, don’t go in the library, don’t go in the cafeteria — avoid any areas where there’s a lot of people.
“I was the only car there when I was dropping my kid off at 8:20,” Anne Smith said, marveling at the empty parking lot.
Frances Flint chose to keep her daughter, also a 10th-grader, home for the whole school day on Friday. “I didn’t think it was a credible threat,” said Flint. Growing up in the Bay Area, Flint said there were regular fake bomb threats at her school when she was young. “But we didn’t have school shooters, so I don’t know what’s a credible threat anymore.”
Regardless, she said, “having so many cops and dogs running through the schools is going to be distracting for students.”
The theater department adapted quickly to its absences. “We are actually having a great day,” said drama teacher Summer Heartt. There were only 6-7 kids in each of her classes, which can typically have 36 or more students. “We’ve done improv games and spent a lot of time working on the set and costumes for ‘Matilda.’”
