The Grant Foreman bomb threat was called into the district’s Board of Education Service and Technology Center at 3:10 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Parents had already arrived at the school to pick up their kids.

Hall said parents stood on the side of the street and did not cross the street while the school responded to the bomb threat.

“We even had police officers escort kids out the back door and walk to Hilltop Avenue,” he said.

The Muskogee Phoenix ran a two paragraph story about the threat March 31. A principal’s letter detailing the school’s response to the threat was sent the following Monday, April 2.

Muskogee School officials say the district is looking into a way to get messages to parents more quickly. District Facilities and Maintenance Director Wayne Johnson said the district is considering Honeywell’s Instant Alert System, which would enable principals or other school officials to send messages to parents and students through mass e-mail, telephone and text-messaging. Johnson said parents wanting to be included in the Instant Alert system would tell school officials how they would want to be contacted. He said the system could target specific groups or individuals to contact.

“It could be just parents, just people at certain schools or just freshmen at the high school,” he said.

Honeywell representatives are to explain the Instant Alert system to Muskogee administrators on May 8. Johnson said cost of the system, which is used by 2,100 districts across the United States, is based on the number of students.

At Wagoner, School Superintendent Janice Aldridge said the district is installing a School Messenger mass-messaging system which she expects to be online by the start of the 2008 school year. She said the basic program costs about $8,000, based on student population, plus $1,000 for additional software. She said the district is “digging up funds” to finish installing the system.

Aldridge and Johnson said their messaging systems also could inform parents of weather-related school closings.

Not all school districts are getting on the mass-messaging bandwagon.

Tahlequah High School Principal Nick Migliorino the idea of text-messaging parents “is intriguing to me.” He said Tahlequah Schools would use mass media and area emergency management systems to inform parents of emergencies.

“On a mass scale, our procedure in an emergency would be to notify the school board, make sure all school administrators are notified,” he said. “Then, God forbid, it’s a lockdown, get the word out to parents through radio, TV, public announcements.”

Migliorino said the district has multiple security cameras at each school. At his school, all visitors check in at the office and must show a photo identification and get a visitor’s lanyard. A student “ambassador” must escort visitors to places beyond the school office, he said.

The school also has a safety resource officer through the Tahlequah Police Department on campus.

Fort Gibson Superintendent Derald Glover said the district is seeking a grant to install Aiphone security door systems at each school entrance. Exterior doors at each school are locked, and the Aiphone would enable school staff to identify the visitor before granting access.