The Iowa City Regina Board of Education will meet tonight to discuss the future of two students who are accused of phoning in bomb threats to the school. A 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy have been charged with first-degree harassment.
Regina president Lee Iben is calling the two bomb threats “a malicious hoax” and says the school was never in danger and no devices or suspicious packages were found. “Ever since the first bomb threat, local authorities have been working on the case. Enough evidence materialized after the second bomb threat that they were able to pinpoint it to these two students at Regina,” Iben said.
Police have said a third, unknown suspect was involved but remains at large. The bomb threats were made in phone calls to the school on August 20 and September 19.
“I’ve had several questions about how safe is Regina and I can tell you with all certainty that Regina is safer today than it’s ever been before,” Iben said. “These two bomb threats worked out to be two bomb threat drills for us and so it’s given us an opportunity to look at our systems internally and see where we can make some improvements.”
The bomb threat on the morning of August 20 forced the evacuation of the school’s roughly 850 students and teachers to a nearby church. Students were sent home early last Wednesday afternoon by the second bomb threat.