Bomb threat leads to evacuation at DeKalb's Clinton Rosette Middle School

DeKALB – School District 428 administrators evacuated about 600 sixth- through eighth-grade students at Clinton Rosette Middle School after receiving a bomb threat Monday morning.

District Superintendent Doug Moeller said someone called in a bomb threat to the school's main office at 11:25 a.m. Officials ordered everyone out of the building.

"We knew within 8 minutes that every student was safe, every staff member was safe and the building was clear," Moeller said.

School officials had students wait a safe distance from the school, then loaded them onto buses on First Street and took them to the DeKalb Park District Sports and Recreation Center, 1765 S. Fourth St., DeKalb. At 12:22 p.m., the school district told parents about the bomb threat and evacuation. Parents were told that they could pick up their children at the rec center if they presented photo identification.

Traffic was backed up on Fourth Street as parents rushed to pick up their children.

Among them was Fred Paoletta, whose daughter, Elaine, is a seventh-grader at Clinton Rosette. Paoletta said his wife had called and told him about the situation Monday afternoon.

"The bomb threat I was hoping was a prank," Paoletta said. "I didn’t immediately think anything other than that."

Paoletta said it was alarming to think about his daughter being in jeopardy.

"I’m a veteran, I know what can happen," he said. "I got scared.”

Elaine Paoletta said the evacuation unfolded just like a drill at first, but then seemed like something more the longer students spent waiting outside the building.

"I was getting a little antsy," she said. "I thought, what is actually going on because my teacher didn’t know what was happening.

"... When they lined us up to get on the bus our principal told us that it was a bomb threat and I was … a little freaked out about it, I was making sure all my friends were safe, I was texting them and making sure everybody is OK."

Elaine Paoletta said she felt better after leaving the school.

Bomb-sniffing dogs had been called in from Kane County to search for any possible bombs, Moeller said, and there would be no all-clear given until the building had been searched.

Extracurricular activities at the school were canceled, although a joint band concert with Huntley Middle School students would go on as scheduled, Moeller said.

Moeller said this was the first bomb threat he had encountered since he started with the district in 2009.

"We practice this (evacuation) protocol often and today it went off without a hitch," Moeller said.

Most of the students were picked up by parents before 2 p.m. The rest were taken to DeKalb High School and put on their regular bus routes, Moeller said.