INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - At the Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis, it was business as usual Monday afternoon after an intense morning that saw the center evacuated of students and staff, as police and a K-9 searched the building after someone called in a bomb threat.
The call, later determined to be a hoax, was one of more than 20 received by JCCs and Jewish day schools across the country Monday.
"When does it end? What's the point? Like, what did my kids do?" asked mom Mehgan O'Connor, who had no easy answers Monday night after she received a text from the JCC that morning about the threat.
"I was on the phone with my husband trying to figure out should I go try to find him," explained O'Connor, talking about her 4 1/2-year-old son who attends preschool at the JCC.
O'Connor's daughter also goes to the center for an after-school program, but she didn't attend Monday.
"I did eventually pick up Finn and take him home and not because I don't have trust in the center, but because it just made me feel better as a mom," O'Connor explained.
"When it's widespread like that, it's almost a little more scary because you don't know how many people are behind it," said Chyanne Lopez of the threats that came in across the country.
Lopez is a teacher at the center and a parent whose child attends the after-school program.
"It kind of makes you a little bit on edge. Everyone was not quite the same today," said Lopez.
For O'Connor, though, it's not a phoned in threat that worries her the most.
"My biggest concern is when these clowns don't make the call," she said.
Despite the many threats that the FBI is now investigating, the JCC of Indianapolis says it will be business as usual on Tuesday.
