# Want to close down a school system? Just find a WiFi hotspot! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 11, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314 "2010-11-11T15:25:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/21 "2010-11-12T03:35:11Z")
Am I reading correctly that they shut down a VIRTUAL school over this? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/22 "2010-11-12T05:52:58Z")
> [@Kelby](#): > > Many schools don’t even evacuate anymore. They just do a lockdown until the police and available school staff can do a security sweep. The incidents of bomb threats have actually diminished since this became policy, as there isn’t the spectacle of kids rushing out of the school and instruction being disrupted for most of the day. The people perpetrating the threat, usually students, aren’t getting the vicarious power thrill they used to. I remember one in my parochial school, many years ago. We were outside for about half of that hour. As soon as we got back into the classroom, Principal Sr. Grace Marie came on the speaker system and instructed all the teachers that since there was so little time left that period, they should not try to finish that days’ lesson, but instead they should all fill in the remainder of that hour by giving an immediate pop quiz. And they all did. We never had another bomb threat phoned in at the school. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/23 "2010-11-12T07:14:09Z")
> [@Kelby](#): > > Many schools don’t even evacuate anymore. They just do a lockdown until the police and available school staff can do a security sweep. The incidents of bomb threats have actually diminished since this became policy, as there isn’t the spectacle of kids rushing out of the school and instruction being disrupted for most of the day. The people perpetrating the threat, usually students, aren’t getting the vicarious power thrill they used to. My High School let students know that they would disregard any bomb threats. The other High School in town evacuated so long as the person answering the phone wasn’t aware of any term tests taking place. Guess which one got bomb threats. Is there a risk that the disregarded threat will be real? Yes, that’s what happened in Hipercor (21 dead, Barcelona, 1986). Is the risk high enough to evacuate every time you get a threat? No. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/24 "2010-11-12T07:55:18Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > … stupid dipshit … Yup, that would sum up\* the OP quite nicely. - Though I think adding “with a hernia from goalpost moving” would be even more accurate. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/25 "2010-11-12T08:44:42Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Nothing new. Kids called in fake bomb threats from pay phones at my high school on a regular basis. Indeed. And over here, they evacuated the Eiffel Tower twice recently following bomb calls. In fact, what puzzles me is that it doesn’t happen _way more often_, given the huge number of idiots, intoxicated people, bored teenagers, kids who didn’t work on their assignements, etc…present at any time in a large population. I’d tend to expect dozens if not hundred of fake threats every day. People must be wiser than I usually assume. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/26 "2010-11-12T14:10:26Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > People must be wiser than I usually assume. Or they are too stupid to operate a phone. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/27 "2010-11-12T14:33:23Z")
> [@otternell](#): > > We’ve been having a bit of an [epidemic](http://www.kcci.com/news/25752707/detail.html) in Des Moines this month with kids calling in fake bomb threats to their schools. I think 6 in November alone. > > If they are convicted, one has the chance to serve up to 10 years in prison. Sounds like they have 2-3 suspects on a couple of others too. It happened in my high school a couple times one school year in…1991? Something like that. As we stood around in the Milwaukee cold for an hour we had a good laugh about the fire and police departments searching the school for a bomb. It was a big school and there’s no way in hell they searched every hallway, locker, and cabinet. More kabuki bullshit, it’s just now instead of treating it as something they have to follow up to be thorough it is instead a dive deep into Chicken Little territory. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/28 "2010-11-12T15:33:02Z")
We actually had a bomb go off in our high school. Seriously. It was a pipe bomb placed under the water fountain about 100 feet from my classroom. Blew a hole in the wall into the boy’s bathroom and took out half a dozen lockers on the other side of the hall, but I think that was the extent of the damage. They eventually caught the kid who did it. Not sure if he even called in a bomb threat. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/29 "2010-11-12T21:03:22Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > We actually had a bomb go off in our high school. > > Seriously. It was a pipe bomb placed under the water fountain about 100 feet from my classroom. Blew a hole in the wall into the boy’s bathroom and took out half a dozen lockers on the other side of the hall, but I think that was the extent of the damage. > > They eventually caught the kid who did it. Not sure if he even called in a bomb threat. That’s another relevant point - if someone’s goal is simply to cause as much carnage as possible, they’re probably not going to call in order to give the school enough time to get everyone away from the bomb before it goes off. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/30 "2010-11-12T21:25:59Z")
Yeah, but what’s so fucking sacrosanct about never closing schools? Here in DC we close schools when someone mutters the word, “Snow.” BFD, an extra day of school is just added later. If someone phones in a bomb threat, there’s a .1 percent chance that children could die. There’s no problem at all in tacking on an extra day of school at the end of the year, just to be extra safe. Whoop-de-doo. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/31 "2010-11-13T00:04:08Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > If someone phones in a bomb threat, there’s a .1 percent chance that children could die. Is there? Or is it in fact a much smaller chance. So small a chance that it’s not worth even bothering doing something about. What if kids are more likely to die being hit by cars walking to school for that extra day than they are sitting in class ignoring a bomb threat? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/32 "2010-11-13T00:34:05Z")
If going to school is such a risk, then we should prohibit year-round schools, shorten the school year, and lengthen the school day so kids can minimize the number of times they go to school. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/33 "2010-11-13T04:45:30Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > But if somebody uses a laptop at one of the many free WiFi hotspots, and one of the many free websites that let you make phone calls, seems like a crime that would be pretty hard to solve. This is probably just some schoolkids, but if someone really wanted to disrupt this country, you could make a lot of trouble pretty easily. Assuming, of course, that the authorities respond to all such incidents. Seems like they overreacted down in Florida. There are a lot of those sorts of potential targets around the country. There’s a big series of electrical transformers near my house, way out on a country road. Someone with a little know-how could ruin it pretty easily without getting caught, I think, and maybe shut down power to few neighborhoods. I wonder that this sort of terrorism which kills now one but inconveniences thousands or tens of thousands isn’t more common; easy to claim moral high ground, and sure gets attention. A bunch of dead people over there doesn’t get half as many complaints as when _my_ lights are out. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/34 "2010-11-14T15:06:44Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The answer of course is for all public pay phones to have a [del]telescreen[/del] security camera built in, so their use can be monitored. Thats it! The Terrorists have Won! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/35 "2010-11-14T15:16:29Z")
There is a non-zero chance that they’ll get busted if only because people like to brag about their exploits. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/36 "2010-11-14T16:50:19Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Nothing new. Kids called in fake bomb threats from pay phones at my high school on a regular basis. They still have payphones? Most places where pay phones _have_ been are now just empty pedestals. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314/37 "2010-11-15T19:39:10Z")
Late 70’s We did this on nice sunny days with a test looming. From the payphone next to the office! Day after day! Eventually some of us AV geeks tapped into the school’s phone line, strung twisted pair to a locker, and hooked up a lineman’s [phone](http://davewhitmore.net/images/field/lineman_test_phone.jpg) so we could make long distance calls anytime. Plus, it made it easier to call the office. Had we had lockdowns instead of sitting in the sun or playing frisbee for 2 hours, we wouldn’t have done it. Good times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-close-down-a-school-system-just-find-a-wifi-hotspot/560314.md?page=1)