Hundreds of Volusia County students stay home Monday after bomb threat

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — More than a third of students at University High School were absent Monday after a bomb threat was found written on the wall of a bathroom last week.

Volusia County Schools conducted a full sweep of the school Monday morning and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, officials said.

The school also had added security, with five Volusia County deputies and four K9s.

That didn’t keep Wendy Vidal from urging her children to stay home Monday.

“As a mom, I told both of them to stay home,” she said. “’Please stay home so I can work in peace and at least know my kids are home (and) they’re safe.’”

Vidal’s older son, who is a senior, decided to go to school despite the warning because he didn’t want an unexcused absence to affect his grades.

Her younger son, a sophomore, decided to stay home, arguing that an unexcused absence wasn’t enough to outweigh the possibility that the threat was real.

“The parents want to play it safe,” he said. “Why put their kids in any harm’s way over missing one day of education?”

Volusia County Schools representatives said students would not receive an automatic excuse for staying home Monday, but would address the situation on a case-by-case basis.

Cox Media Group