After a week in which three bomb threats at Allen High School resulted in three juvenile arrests and an active investigation, the Allentown mayor and police chief joined school officials in calling on students and parents to act responsibly.
“To the students: I’m pleading with you, please knock it off,” Mayor Matt Tuerk said at news conference Thursday afternoon. “This is disruptive, and it’s not getting you what you hope for out of your education.”
Tuerk, Allentown School District Superintendent Carol Birks and police Chief Charles Roca all appealed to parents to be more involved in their children’s lives, saying a greater effort is needed to strengthen relationships and prevent students from making choices that carry serious legal consequences.
“We need your help,” Birks said, calling on families to take advantage of the school district’s mental health services if students need more support.
Roca said students need to be guided to make proper choices rather than creating chaos for others. In addition to the need to evacuate students and staff, the security response to a bomb threat calls in police, fire, EMS and additional canine units from neighboring jurisdictions to help clear the building.
The cost of that response runs in the “tens of thousands” of dollars, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said, declaring his office’s intention to “pursue the maximum penalty” plus restitution for those charged with making bomb threats.
All three teenagers referred to the district attorney’s office for making bomb threats this week are charged with felony offenses, Holihan said.
“Swift action and swift consequences make a difference,” Holihan said.
After the news conference, Roca and Allentown School Board President Andrene Brown-Nowell discussed additional ways to make a difference for the district’s students, especially those at Allen High who have had two half days and another disrupted learning day already this week due to bomb threats.
The district likely will hold additional safety-themed assemblies at both high schools, but will probably “rev up” efforts at Allen, Brown-Nowell said, noting that there’s a need to message to students both what resources are available to them and the lifelong consequences that come with the decision to make a bomb threat.
Brown-Nowell lives close to Allen High, and she said the crowds of evacuated students she’s spoken with this week are “annoyed” at the disruptions.
During the news conference, Birks and others said that the vast majority of Allentown students are making the right choices and just want to learn.
“We’re talking less than 1% of the students who are being disruptive and causing a lot of anxiety and fear,” Birks said.
Allentown faced a rash of bomb threats last fall, with threats at Trexler Middle School on Sept. 11 and 15, four threats at Allen High School between Sept. 17 and Oct. 27, and a threat at South Mountain Middle School on Oct. 21.
In 2026, the district has seen seven bomb threats, six of which were at Allen High School. The threats at Allen occurred on April 24 and 27, Aug. 24, and Oct. 20, 21 and 22. There was a bomb threat at Dieruff High on Oct. 5.
Roca and Holihan said they cannot release details of their investigations but that they’ve seen a mix of threats made by local residents and out-of-town sources. Birks called the incidents “unfortunately, part of a disturbing nationwide surge.”