By Hailey Nowers

The week of Friday, Dec. 15, there were many bomb threats made to schools across Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.

Beaver County was no exception.

At around 8 a.m., Beaver High was alerted about the situation.

“I thought we were fairly well prepared,” Principal Brady Fails said. “I’m proud of the kids that were here and the staff and how they responded. It was kind of scary for a minute for some people, but, even so, they responded very well, and I was really proud of them.”

BHS counselor Preston Clarke made an announcement for all students and teachers to evacuate the building as quickly as possible. The few students and staff that were on campus evacuated to the seminary building to wait for law enforcement and their guardians, as well as buses. 

The students that drove were allowed to drive home, and bus students were located at the church while they waited for their buses to arrive. 

The debate team relocated to the city office for their tournament bus, and the girls basketball team relocated to the church for their game bus. 

“All students and staff were off campus by 8:25 a.m., and a reminder was sent out to everyone around 8 a.m. to keep others from coming,” Fails said. 

The threat was later confirmed to be a hoax and all schools were cleared. 

“Because our campus has so many entrances, there’s a few (teachers) at the front of the school to stop people coming in, but we noticed some students coming in from the north side by my classroom,” English teacher Ben Carter said. “A few of us had to come over to tell them to leave, but, if there was a real emergency, it probably shouldn’t be us as teachers, it should be law enforcement. Overall, I think we reacted very well.”

As unfortunate as it was, the experience gave us all the opportunity to reflect on what we can do better next time.