Chicago Area Local News

DOLTON, Ill. (CBS) ― In the latest in a wave of violence scares that have shut down more than a dozen schools and affected thousands of students, an entire south suburban school district will be closed until Tuesday at the earliest after a threat was found in a boy's bathroom.

District 149 Supt. Traci Brown said graffiti with the words "be prepared to die on Monday'' was found Wednesday on the wall of a bathroom at Dirksen Middle School, 1650 Pulaski Rd. in Calumet City.

Today's Question: If your kids went to these schools, would you want it shut down?

Officials said the 3,100 children affected by the closing are not in danger. Brown said she believes the incident is the work of a copycat.

"I do believe that it's a copycat, but I don't believe we can play down the seriousness of the message," Brown said.

So, teams of police officers searched the district schools inside and out, looking for anything suspicious.

"We want to check for open doors, lockers, packages that may not belong there, or items that don't belong in the school," said Calumet City police Chief Rusty Larson.

The district also includes Berger Vandenberg Elementary, at 14833 Avalon Ave. in Dolton; Carol Moseley Braun Elementary, at 1655 153rd St. in Calumet City; Caroline Sibley Academy, at 1550 Sibley Blvd. in Calumet City; Diekman Elementary, at 15121 Dorchester Ave. in Calumet City; and New Beginnings Learning Academy, at 156th and Clyde in South Holland.

New Beginnings was the only one of those schools that acknowledged the closure in an outgoing phone message.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, beginning on Thursday, April 17, 2008, New Beginnings Learning Academy and all District 149 schools will be closed until further notice," the message said.

No school means parents are left struggling to find child care.

"It's like, what are you going to do? If you don't have child care, if you don't have the babysitter, the daycare you have no choice but to call off," said Sean Hobson.

He's watching the kids and says he'd lose almost $1,000 if he had to stop working until Wednesday when classes could start again.

At another home, the story is the same.

"It's going to be a burden on a lot of folks because they have to pay for somebody to babysit the kids while their parents got to work," said grandmother Brenda Edwards.

And food service workers are hurting too.

Arletta Pearson earns about $7.50 an hour.

"That means we're not going to get paid for those days. And how are we going to survive?" Pearson said. "I mean we have to get paid for those days that we're off."

Food service workers are employed by Aramark Corporation, and they're meeting Thursday night to consider joining the Service Employees International Union Local Number 1.

One mother, Shari Bridges, attends South Suburban College in South Holland, which was closed on Wednesday due to threats. Now her daughter's school is closed.

"Today is really, really bad," Bridges said. "I really feel like it's scary."

Another parent, Janice Benn, said the situation benefited neither the students nor the parents.

"First and foremost, the children are losing out on their right to education, and the parents are being inconvenienced because they're trying to work to provide a better life for their children, but you can't even send them to school anymore," Benn said.

As of 11 a.m., all the school buildings had checked out safe. The school district has not decided for certain when the schools will reopen.
A classroom teacher notified administrators, and a crisis team met and decided to close the schools.

Even parents with kids who've graduated from the school are upset about the disruption of students' lives.

"This is something that needs to stop," said Lee Mitchell, the parent of a former Dirksen student. "I mean threatening these schools, keeping these kids out of school. I mean everybody's losing here."

"It is our board's opinion to operate on the side of caution. So, if we are making any errors, we are going to err on the side of caution," Supt. Brown said. "We're taking this matter very, very seriously."

The superintendent says staff members will meet Monday; then they'll hold a town hall meeting with parents Tuesday to give them an update.

The earliest students could return to class is on Wednesday, and days lost will have to be made up at the end of the school year.

In addition to the District 149 schools, Seton Academy, a private college-prep school at 16100 Seton Rd. in South Holland canceled classes on Wednesday and Thursday in response to a "reported threat to the school and safety of the students," according to a letter to parents posted on the school's Web site. Administrators plan to resume classes on Friday.

The exact nature of the threats was not disclosed in the letter.

The alleged threats are being investigated by South Holland police, according to the letter, which referred all questions to the school's president and principal.

The shutdowns at District 149 and Seton schools comes on the heels of a string of school closures due to threats of violence, most notably the three campuses of St. Xavier University.

St. Xavier evacuated everyone from its Chicago and Orland Park campuses from Friday until Wednesday after graffiti--with the words "Be Prepared To Die On 4/14''--was found on the wall of a restroom in the Regina Hall dormitory, threatening violence on April 14. The threat also shut down four schools near the university.

Police are questioning a person of interest in the St. Xavier case.

In addition, South Suburban College was closed Wednesday, and Malcolm X College on the city's Near West Side was briefly closed in the past week due to threats. A threat also closed Oakland University in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. 
 
CBS 2's Pamela Jones and Joanie Lum and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

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