Sept. 18, 2001 – A bomb threat was telephoned Tuesday morning to Ivanna Eudora Kean High School and another was called in to Charlotte Amalie High School around noon. Eudora Kean closed for the day after the threat was received there. Bomb threats were also called in to the ScotiaBank branch on Veterans Drive.
A anonymous caller had told police Monday night, "There will be numerous bombs planted in each of the schools tomorrow."
Education Department officials said Eudora Kean closed for the day after the bomb threat was received there about 10 a.m. Tuesday. Classes continued at CAHS.
Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds called the threats "unconscionable" in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the mainland last week. "This is not a time for pranks," she said, adding that students were losing valuable learning time because of the calls, and that they would not be able to make up for the missed lessons. School officials have to take any threat to the children seriously, she added.
A spate of other bomb threats and resulting evacuations have been made in the territory since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., a week ago:
– On Monday, the Human Services Department offices in the Knud-Hansen complex on St. Thomas received a threat.
– On Sunday, the Pueblo supermarket in Sub Base received a threat.
– On Saturday night, the Capt. Vic car barge was forced to end a Jam Band boat ride because of a bomb threat, law-enforcement officials reported.
– Last Wednesday, the Guy Benjamin Elementary School on St. John and the ScotiaBank branch in Tutu Park Mall received bomb threats.
No explosions have occurred, and no bombs have been found at the sites.
On Monday, FBI agents on St. Croix arrested Norman Rampersad Jr. and charged him with making a bomb threat to a subcontractor at the Hovensa oil refinery last week. If convicted, Rampersad could face up to 10 years in prison on the charge of calling in a bomb threat.
Police Commissioner Franz Christian has said that he considers any bomb threat a threat to human life, and cases will be treated as such.
