Dear School Administrator,

Your school secretary answers a phone call stating that there is a bomb in your school. A seventh-grader overhears another student say he knows how to build a bomb and isn't afraid to use it. A teacher receives an e-mail threatening a violent act at the school. An infinite variety of these situations face our schools every day.

How will your school respond to these threats? Does your staff know how to properly document threats? What process do you use to assess the threat and determine a course of action? Have you trained search and evacuation teams? Do your community's emergency responders know your response protocol? How do you follow up an incident? Have you done a tactical review of your school and implemented preventative measures?

Coming in the mail soon is, "Bomb Threat Response: An Interactive Planning Tool For Schools," a CD-Rom that addresses these issues by providing a step-by-step process to devise a bomb threat response plan for your school. The planning is supported by printable PDF files to organize your response and PowerPoint presentations to train staff and present the plan. This work, best done in cooperation with emergency response agencies, will ensure that your school responds to a bomb threat in a way that ensures safety, yet preserves the learning environment.

This historic cooperation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, United States Department of Justice and the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, United States Department of Education demonstrates how two traditionally separate disciplines must come together to keep our children safe. We hope that you and your community agencies will make the same commitment.

We look forward to hearing how you have implemented an appropriate bomb threat response in your school. Please visit the project's web site, www.threatplan.org and give us your feedback.

Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools,
U.S. Department of Education

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives,
U.S. Department of Justice