Council hearing request on the Oct. 27 school bomb threats returns Wednesday after an objection blocked it last week

On the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 27, phoned-in bomb threats sent police to schools and colleges across Boston. The threats were found to be unfounded and every location was cleared, Patch reported. City Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy now want the council to hold a hearing on the response, and their order is on the council's agenda for Wednesday, Nov. 4 (agenda).

For parents, the questions are practical: how schools decide whether to evacuate or keep students inside, how families are told, and whether anyone has been identified.

What happened

Patch listed six locations that received threats: the Josiah Quincy Elementary School on Washington Street, Torit Montessori School, Boston Latin Academy, the New England Conservatory, the Blackstone School on Shawmut Avenue and Boston University.

At BU Academy on University Road, students and staff evacuated at about 9:39 a.m. BU police swept the building and found no threat, and people were allowed back in at about 10:15 a.m., the Daily Free Press reported. A BU spokesperson told the student paper that the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, the police intelligence unit, is investigating. A BU alert called it a hoax.

Patch reported that the Boston Police investigation found the threats unfounded and that all affected locations were deemed safe.

The hearing order

The order, docket 2101 (text), lists the same schools and adds the Samuel Adams School in East Boston. It says BPS, BPS Safety Services and the Boston Police coordinated right away to investigate and support the schools. It says the number of institutions involved calls for "urgent and immediate review" by the council, and asks for an immediate hearing.

What our records add

It was offered last week, and an objection stopped it. The order first came up as a late-filed emergency matter at the council's Oct. 28 meeting. Late files need the council's consent to be taken up that day. The meeting record shows an objection was raised to the hearing order and to a second late-filed item, and the council moved on (watch at 1:45:24). The transcript does not say who objected. The order is now on Wednesday's regular agenda, where hearing orders are normally referred to a committee.

A school safety hearing has waited since March. The council has not yet held a hearing on an earlier request about weapons in schools, as our Oct. 30 story found.

Another Flynn request on the same agenda. Flynn also filed a request under Section 17F for any drafted, existing or expired agreements between BPS and the Boston Police Department (docket 2105; text). A 17F order asks the mayor for specific records.

What's next

The council meets Wednesday at noon in the Iannella Chamber and streams at boston.gov/city-council-tv. If the order is referred, the committee chair would set a hearing date and post a public notice. The Boston Police news page posts updates on investigations.