Oglethorpe Co. threat accidentally triggers false alarm emergency response in Wilkes

Washington and Wilkes County authorities reacted Friday to a suspected threat that turned out to be an offshoot of a Oglethorpe County school bomb threat.

A bomb threat to Oglethorpe County schools triggered an automatic phone announcement that dialed preset numbers and announced a bomb threat at the high school in Lexington. One of the numbers it dialed was at Wills Memorial Hospital. When an employee heard the garbled recording saying something about a bomb threat and high school, she told Wills employee Phil Robb. He drove to the high school, which was nearly empty on a holiday - six math teachers were conferring and fiveDrivers' Ed students were practicing in the parking lot.

Local authorities were called in to ensure that there was not indeed a threat to the high school. Members of the Washington Fire Department and the Washington Police Department searched the school and conferred with school superintendent Joyce Williams and principal Steve Echols at the school.

They found nothing, and police were investigating the possibility of someone copying the Oglethorpe County threats, which has three teens in jail facing charges.

It was during a conversation with GEMA field representative Dan Yeargin that Alan Poss solved the mystery. "Dan was in Oglethorpe County concerning their real bomb threat, and in our conversation it came up about this automatic telephone notificationsystem that Oglethorpe Schools has," Poss said. "It turns out that Wills Memorial Hospital's phone number is in that database, maybe because an employee put it there. Later on Friday, the hospital got another phone call, one that they could tell was a recorded message giving the all clear for Oglethorpe County"

The episode was repeated Monday, when another bomb threat in Oglethorpe resulted in another automated call to Wills. "We knew what it was this time, and it didn't alarm us," Poss said. "We're contacting the Oglethorpe school system to have the phone number at the hospital taken off."

The three Oglethorpe County boys were charged with making terroristic threats after a note was found in the high school, said Oglethorpe County In addition, file a electronic Sheriff Mike Smith. They were released to their parents. "We're taking this very seriously," Smith said. "When we go to trial, I want them punished to the full extent of the law."