ANDREWS, Texas — It was a scary day for those in Andrews as the high school had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Midland and Odessa bomb squads found no explosives and devices after a room-by-room search, and everyone was evacuated safely.
It was around 11 A.M. Thursday morning when the Andrews Police Department was notified of the threat, and from there area-wide law enforcement personnel came in to assist the situation.
The evacuations took place outside of the Mustang Bowl football stadium, and although they went smoothly, it was still a scary situation.
“It was a scary moment," said Stephanie Rodriguez, an Andrews High School parent. "As a parent…not knowing if your kid is ok…it was just like…‘What’s going to happen?’”
“I was concerned about my friends and if I was going to be able go home, or if something was going to happen," said Isabella Rodriguez, a sophomore at Andrews High School and Stephanie's daughter.
“Well school safety is paramount," said Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, Sergeant Steven Blanco.
It was a normal day at Andrews High School before a bomb threat forced everyone into action.
“They announced it," said Isabella Rodriguez. "They just said to evacuate, and we didn’t know what was going on, so we just went outside and that’s when it started escalating going forward and we had to keep going further from the school, which, it was getting serious and everything. So we ended up going to the stadium, and that’s when we started leaving and it just got really out of hand by then.”
“They had said that there was a bomb threat at the school, so that’s when I got in mom mode trying to get over there, and [I] just saw a lot of police cars arriving to the school, everybody armed with an AR and everything, it was just pure chaos," said Stephanie Rodriguez. "Parents lined up through here trying to pick up their student.”
Law enforcement personnel from Midland, Odessa, Andrews County, Gaines County and the Texas DPS responded well to get things under control and make sure everyone was safe and sound at the high school.
They also took precautionary measures around the district, and when these situations happen, they impact communities elsewhere with law enforcement personnel needing to be pulled from surrounding areas for assistance.
“And this is an area we like to caution and speak with parents and in the community about," said Sergeant Blanco. "These threats are taken 100% seriously and they pull a lot of resources from our communities any time an event like this happens. Those are investigations that are stopped, that’s…crashes that are not responded to, when an emergency situation like this happens.”
Gun violence threats were also made, and all terroristic threats are still being investigated.
Sergeant Blanco said that whoever made the threats will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and if anyone has any information regarding the threats made Thursday directed towards Andrews High School, they are asked to call the Andrews Sheriff’s Office at 432-523-5545.