Amid phone threats, crucial decisions on whether to evacuate

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The latest in a wave of bomb threat hoaxes called in to more than 20 Jewish community centers and schools across the country on Monday again put administrators in the position of having to decide whether a threatening message on the other end of a phone line was enough to shred their routines and put people on edge.

"Every time we evacuate or close the business it reinforces the idea to these people that they can shut things down with a phone call," said Steve Albrecht, a former police officer and threat assessment expert based in Colorado.

While the anti-Semitic tone of this year's nearly 100 threats has added a more sinister spin to the hoaxes, schools across the country have been forced to deal with a greater number of so-called swatting incidents, cutting into instruction time and messing with students' routines .

Gurbir Grewal, a prosecutor for Bergen County in New Jersey, which has dealt with a series of swatting incidents and multiple threats called in to a Jewish community center, said he can't recall any incidents in which an attack was telegraphed.

Melissa Plotkin, director of community engagement and diversity at a Jewish community center in York, Pennsylvania, said evacuating when a threat came in Monday was part of the center's protocol.