It sounds like the start of a mystery or horror movie—but it was a reality on Wednesday, December 17, for Haverford High School students.
At approximately 8:00 AM, the familiar voice of Principal Pete Donaghy came over the announcements, no different from every other morning, except for the message he delivered.
The office had received a bomb threat at 7:50 a.m., and suddenly, the chill that ran through the building wasn’t from the snow on the ground.
At first, students were advised to stay in classrooms and avoid the bathroom that the culprit threatened to blow up.
“Mr. Mingey told us to sit silently in the corners of the room [and he turned] off the lights,” freshman Ismat Wilson recalls, her voice edged with nerves. “Me and my friends were all rushing…freaking out, trying to stay calm. It was dark…”
For students out of class, the announcement was even more jarring. “My friend, Sophia, was still in the locker room. Me and my friends were so worried.” According to Ismat, a wide-eyed Sophia sprinted into the room.
The class held its breath when she burst through the door, expecting someone on her heels, but they were instead met with the voice of Principal Donaghy, who called for the evacuation of juniors and seniors soon after the original announcement.
“We were like ‘Why not us?’” Freshman Kaylin Hobbs laughs after the fact. “We didn’t want to be left behind when there was a threat. We don’t even know the building yet.”
Luckily, freshmen and sophomores were let out soon after, and all made it safely to the middle school, even though, according to junior Jack Campbell, “It was crazy. No one knew what was going on.”
Even once he got to the cafeteria, the meeting place for juniors and seniors, the only word he could use to describe the situation was “chaotic.” A similar situation was unfolding in Gym AB where the freshmen and sophomores met.
However, once they were “safe” inside the middle school, students went from clenching their teeth to frantically assuring loved ones, including the middle schoolers trapped floors above them.
“My little sister emailed me to make sure I was okay. The middle schoolers heard about the bomb from their homeroom teacher,” recounts freshman Jessica Violetti.
“It was our first real lockdown,” sixth-grader Marty Garland confides. “It never seemed possible for something like this to happen before.”
However, once they arrived at the middle school, tension dissipated for most. Walls can give an illusion of safety, and nervous murmuring gave way to laughs and hopes of skipping math tests and science quizzes.
Groups played charades and passed out candy canes while adults tried to settle the crowd and form lines. Homeroom teachers tried to disseminate the partial information they were given, and one thing became clear: in the minds of the students, at least, the threat was over.
If only that were true.
While the police managed to arrive on scene in less than a minute, they have not yet traced the bomb threat, and speculation has quickly spread. Some believe it was a student trying to avoid a test, while others believe someone more sinister could be behind the threat.
According to Donaghy, “The police and I believe it was no one from the Haverford area,” but there is no way to be entirely sure until the culprit is caught. Donaghy added that “it sounded like a voice changer,” and speculated that it could have involved AI, though a person would still be responsible for making the call.
The questions remain: Why Haverford High School, and who was responsible for the call? Was this incident just one of the first in a line of AI terrorism on the horizon?
Regardless, the incident left a lasting impact on students and staff, turning an ordinary school morning into one filled with fear, confusion, and unanswered questions.
