School threats force bag ban for middle and high schools starting Monday

The threat also hit F.B. Leon Guerrero middle school in Yigo early today. 

The Guam Department of Education suspended classes for students there as well. 

This afternoon, GDOE Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Swanson confirmed with KUAM that Guam police have a suspect in custody. 

This is only in connection to the threat made toward the FBLG campus but the scares have now forced the public school system to ban backpacks and large handbags for all middle and high school students starting Monday. 

“We have to dispel this idea that this is a sort of fun activity. It’s not. It’s a federal crime. The second thing is we are going to go into a heightened security level in all of our secondary schools starting Monday for a while. So, no backpacks, no big bags, checkpoints in all the middle schools and all the high schools,” said Swanson. 

The superintendent said they are taking these threats seriously. 

We will have the latest on GDOE’s response to the threats. 

School health inspections

Meantime, it's not stopping the agency from working to get the final campuses inspected and cleared for in-person learning by the end of September, and that’s Monday.

“The Southern High School inspection is winding up today. We are doing Inarajan Middle on Monday. So my maintenance folks assessment is they are going to pass. It's not set in stone until the health department signs off on it. But there's been a huge amount of work at both those schools to get them ready,” said Swanson. 

The superintendent added the health inspection cycle starts back up in October. 

Guam DOE is hoping to have the budget it needs to address existing health demerits and keep the school repairs going.