DECEMBER 23 • 2021 | 17
governmental levels to create
laws that will lessen the threat
of gun violence.
“It is unconscionable that
this is how the situation has
devolved,” Arbit said. “We
have been able to protect
airports and other public
institutions, and schools have
not been prioritized.”
POSSIBLE FALSE ALARM
On Monday afternoon, West
Bloomfield Deputy Chief
Curt Lawson said the image
of the threat was created
on SnapChat, at first in
a closed group, and then
shared multiple times and
spread over Instagram. It
is not clear from where the
image originated or even if
the threatening message was
intended for West Bloomfield
High School or Oakdale
Academy in Waterford or
other schools with similar
names in another part of the
country. Two individuals are
currently being investigated
and they are both juveniles,
Lawson added.
“We don’t know where that
threat originated from, and
it’s going to be somewhat
difficult to find out,” Lawson
told the JN. “But we do know
someone who shared it within
a closed group and that’s how
we found two individuals.
We will determine if they are
going to be prosecuted or not,
but we do not believe at this
time there is a threat that we
know of to West Bloomfield
Schools.”
Lawson said West
Bloomfield Police will
continue to remain a visible
presence on school grounds,
and his investigation teams
will also continue to work
with school administrators
to identify future potential
threats.
As of now, Lawson said
more than 30 different
cases in Oakland County
have been forwarded to the
Oakland County prosecutor’s
office that involve threats of
violence to schools.
Ilanit Atias, whose son
attends Seaholm High School
in Birmingham, said she has
taught him to be in “high-
alert mode” while in school
and to pay attention to his
surroundings when passing
in the hall “just in case.”
“I tell him, ‘You can check
your phone in class, but when
you are walking between
classes, be alert,’” said Atias,
an Israeli who has lived in the
United States for the past two
years.
She added that she never
thought she would have to
utilize her training learned
in the Israeli Defense Forces
now that she lives in the
United States. “I have to take
all my soldier skills and teach
them to my son, even though
we don’t live in the Middle
East, and that is just sad.
There needs to be a way to
allow for the creation of an
executive order that expels
children or prevents them
from ever learning in an
in-person classroom setting
if there are continued threats
that terrorize the lives of our
children.”
All West Bloomfield
schools will be going virtual
and will resume in-person
instruction on Jan. 3.
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