"There’s a bomb in your school."

That’s what switchboard operator Dianne Fisher heard when she answered the phone at 7:34 a.m. on Oct. 7. The caller was identified by Fisher as "a woman with a deep voice in her 20-30s, but no older."

Thirty minutes later, that deep voice caused the 1,000 students and faculty that were in attendance at IVCC to be evacuated. Classes were cancelled until noon that day. According to faculty members, most of those afternoon classes had few attendees.

"This is the first time we’ve evacuated because of a bomb threat," said Dr. Frank Zeller, vice president of business services. "That doesn’t mean there haven’t been threats before. Society has changed. (Years ago) students didn’t have the ability to do these things. Now it’s more of a threat."

According to Zeller, Dr. Jean Goodnow, the college president, was the second to know of the threat.

"It’s really her decision as to whether or not we evacuate," Zeller said. "She made the call to evacuate. We then contacted the authorities and gathered some staff members to determine what we were going to do."

Goodnow said the threat wasn’t something to take lightly.

"The manner in which the call was called in played a big role in the evacuation," said the president. "We take those threats very seriously just like airlines do."

Zeller said that once he got the OK from Goodnow, the staff wasn’t sure how to proceed with the evacuation.

"We were simply picking out options; this has never really happened before," said Zeller. "We thought about driving a squad car into middle of the courtyard and turning on the sirens, but not everybody would hear that."

Instead of the squad car, Zeller and several staff members combed through the building and made sure everyone evacuated safely. According to Zeller, the process took 15 minutes.

"I am very confident in our staff and the trained professionals we have available on call," Zeller said. "I thought we handled the situation nicely."

One of those called to the scene was Oglesby police chief Tom Martin. At press time, the threat was still under investigation and no arrests had been made.

"I am confident we’ll find out who the caller was," said Martin. "Every threat we have is dealt with as a live bomb. It’s too bad this happens in educational systems, but people are just going to have to deal with it and evacuate."

In addition to Martin and the Oglesby police, the LaSalle, and Illinois State Police departments also responded. A tactical unit of the DuPage County police force was also available.

Although Martin said things went smoothly during the search for the bomb, and the evacuation, he believed they could’ve been more efficient.

"If the fire alarm had been pulled, it could have brought 15 minutes down two or three," said Martin who’s crew took one and a half hours to search the building for a bomb. "I plan to meet with Zeller and look at certain things."

Zeller he thinks there need to be some changes as well.

"The bottom line is that if there is ever a bomb threat or any other emergency in which we need to evacuate, we will use the fire alarm," said Zeller. "We’re currently in the process of taking bids for a new system for half of the college. The other half will follow soon after that."

Goodnow said those changes will take a higher priority because of the incident.

"This won’t do anything but reinforce the need for that system," said Goodnow. "We’ve been aware of the need for a new system and it’s part of our master plan."

While Zeller was pleased with the procedure during the emergency, several students were irked.

"I think the whole thing was a pathetic attempt at juvenile humor that interrupted my class and lab time," said Al Steinz, student trustee on the College Board. "This just sets my entire schedule back."

Some students said they were told by some of the janitorial staff to leave their bags and belongings behind and were told that they would return to the school.

"I don’t know who said that, but they were wrong," said Zeller. "I talked to (Oglesby chief of police Tom) Martin and he said he’d never seen so many book bags in his life."

Many teachers were also frustrated with the threat.

"It is unfortunate that so many people could have their day disrupted by the act of one idiot," said Mike Phillips, science instructor.

"I think safety procedures need to be addressed," said Kim Radek, English instructor. "I arrived at school before 7 a.m. and was working in my office… I didn’t find out until after 8 a.m. It seems to me that 25 minutes is too large a margin of error in a disaster situation."

One teacher who wished to remain anonymous had a different response to the incident.