story - Brandon Moeller

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POTPOURRI
Tomball
THE
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
FREE
VOL. 22/NO. 39
Online at www.thetomballpotpourri.com
Circulating more than 41,500 with an estimated 90,000 readers.
The official newspaper of the City of Tomball.
OFF THE TOP
Santa to help honor veterans
Parade and
Pageant
Area events planned to celebrate those who served in America’s armed forces
Boy, 10, could
face felony
charges for
messing with
fire alarm
The Tomball Area Chamber of
Commerce will host the 2006
Tomball Holiday Parade, “A
Broadway Holiday.”
The parade will begin at the
railroad tracks on Main Street and
proceed west to end at Klein’s
Super Market at 1200 West Main
St. on Nov. 18 starting at 10 a.m.
The 41st Annual Miss Tomball
Pageant will be held at the
Tomball Intermediate School
Auditorium on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.
For more information, call 281351-7222.
BY BRANDON MOELLER
Potpourri Staff Writer
Prior to the annual event and
afterwards, local veterans and
members of the post will visit
students in area schools including campuses in the Independent
School District campuses of
Tomball, Magnolia, Klein and
Waller school districts.
Tomball ISD schools are commemorating the day with various
events, also. Willow Creek
Elementary will host its
Veterans’ Day program at 9 a.m.,
Nov. 10. The program will be
presented by third grade students
and local veterans are invited to
attend along with the public.
There will be a reception after
the program for veterans in
attendance.
A Tomball student was arrested
Oct. 25 for allegedly setting off a
fire alarm at his intermediate
school.
“I need you to teach these boys
a lesson,” is what 10-year-old
Beckendorf Intermediate School
student Casey Harmeier said he
heard his principal tell a Tomball
Police Department officer after
the boy admitted to pulling a fire
alarm at the school. The boy said
he did it after being dared to
remove the plastic cover of the
alarm by a neighborhood friend.
Tomball Independent School
District spokesperson Staci
Stanfield confirmed the boy was
arrested, but speaking on behalf
of Beckendorf Intermediate
School Principal Delores Guidry,
she said Guidry told her she did
not make the remarks Harmeier
alleges.
After questioning the fifth
grade student and others who
were present when the incident
happened Oct. 25, TPD Officer
Paul Overcast arrested Harmeier
and took him to the Tomball jail
where his parents later picked
him up.
Harmeier readily admits that he
told the officer that he pulled the
fire alarm, he said, because that’s
what he thought he had done
when he removed the plastic
cover. He said when he removed
the cover, an alarm did sound –
but his father now questions if the
alarm that sounded was the actual
fire alarm or merely a nuisance
alarm designed to alert officials to
a false alarm attempt.
“I think what set it off was the
office staff who put the cover
back on,” Frank Harmeier said.
The incident started when
Casey Harmeier’s fifth grade
class was shuffled into the hallway as teachers were swapping
classrooms, Stanfield said. While
standing in the hallway, Casey
Harmeier said his shoulder
brushed against the plastic cover
of the fire alarm, moving it, but
not removing it – and no alarm
went off.
That’s when his neighborhood
See VETERANS, page 4A
See ALARM, page 4A
City
Council
Tomball City Council meetings
are regularly scheduled for the
first and third Monday of the
month at 401 Market St. in
Tomball.
The next meeting will be held
Nov. 20 starting at 7 p.m. For
more information, call 281-3515484.
Holiday
Closing
The North Harris Montgomery
Community College District will
observe the Thanksgiving holiday
Nov. 23 through Nov. 26.
Campuses, including Tomball
College, will close early Nov. 22
at 4:30 p.m.
Reenactment
There will be a Civil War reenactment at the historic Liendo
Plantation in Hempstead the
weekend of Nov. 17 at Liendo
Plantation.
For more information, call 979826-3126.
Holiday
Ballet
Houston Repertoire Ballet will
present, “The Nutcracker” at
Tomball High School Theatre,
30330 Quinn Rd. in Tomball, on
Dec. 1, 2 and 3.
For more information, call 281351-ARTS (2787) or visit
www.hrbtickets.org online.
Subitted Photo
Santa and children, Bradley Painter (sitting next to Santa) and Carol
Painter, wave from a helicopter after it landed at Tomball Jet Center at
David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport. Santa will be included in
Veterans’ Day festivities scheduled to take place at the Center Nov.
BY TANA ROSS
Potpourri Contributing Writer
Honoring those who served,
the U.S. Veterans of Foreign
Wars Post 2427, 14408 Alice
Rd., will host its annual
Veterans’ Day Luncheon, Nov.
10.
“We will bring in at least two
bus loads of veterans from the
Veterans Hospital in Houston,”
VFW Post 2427 Commander
Bobby Pozinsky said.
At noon, the veterans will be
treated to a home-cooked meal
of barbecue with all the trimmings. In addition, VFW Post
2427 Ladies Auxiliary will help
host the event and the Tomball
High School Navy Junior ROTC
and
representatives
from
Tomball Boy Scout Troop 41
will be on hand to visit with veterans.
Finding a place to observe
Veterans’Day in the Tomball and
Magnolia areas will not be difficult.
Tomball Jet Center at the David
Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport
will play host to a Texas
Helicopter and Hot Rod DriveIn-Fly-In event, which will feature a free pancake breakfast, a
show of Texas-made rotary-wing
aircraft and classic cars from the
Niftee50ees Car Cruisers Club.
Veterans and current soldiers will
be honored at the event with a
Civil Air Patrol Color Guard
Ceremony, which is scheduled to
be accompanied by members of
the Tomball chapter of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Santa Claus, who will arrive by
helicopter at 11 a.m., will also
make an appearance at the event
that is scheduled to take place at 7
a.m. and last until about 1 p.m.,
Tomball Jet Center Events
Coordinator Be Henry said.
Tomball Jet Center staff will
take free pictures of Santa Claus
with local children, which will be
printed out for parents at the
event. Barbecue plates can be
purchased for $10 starting at
noon.
Participants can bring used
books and music CDs to donate
to troops currently serving in Iraq
and other foreign territories.
The event will be located on the
west side of Hooks Airport, 9310
Max Conrad Dr. in Spring.
HOT TOPICS
Officials: Storm piled 13-inches of rain on city streets
HOME FROM WAR:
Third generation soldier returns
home to Tomball after serving in
Iraq. See page 6A.
BY BRANDON MOELLER
Potpourri Staff Writer
FRIDAY NIGHT SCORES:
Find out Tomball and Magnolia
area scores from Friday night
games on page 3B of Sports.
ALSO INSIDE
YOUR CLOSET IS HER OFFICE
Image consultant Cathy
Fitzpatrick helps clients clean
out, dress up and give back.
Catch her one-woman show at
Dress for Success’ “A Night
Out” on Nov. 15. Read about it
in this week’s Greater Houston
Weekly, found inside The
Potpourri.
Opinions.......................Page 2A
Obituaries...................Page 4A
Weather Almanac..........Page 6A
On The Move................Page 6A
Making the Grade.......Page 11A
Business......................Page 12A
Sports............................Page 1B
Hometown.....................Page 4B
Classifieds...................Page 10B
Service Directory........Page 10B
The city of Tomball is collecting information about
Tomball residents’ flood experiences during the Oct. 26
downpour that dumped as
much as an estimated 13 inches
of rain in a short period of time,
causing Willow Creek to overspill onto SH 249 near the
southern city limit.
Residents can report what
happened – if anything – at
their homes and neighborhoods
by calling the Tomball
Volunteer Fire Department at
281-351-7101.
“I’m still trying to accumulate information about who had
water in their homes to see if
we need to go to Harris County
to say, ‘Hey, we may need
some help for some of these
folks,’” Fire Chief Randall Parr
said. “As we finish collecting
the data – then we can get with
the (Tomball) City Manager
and (the Tomball) Public
Works and do a bit of a map of
the areas that had problems and
what areas we can look at for
long-range planning to try to
mitigate some of this.”
Though Parr was hesitant to
speculate whether Oct. 26’s
rain event was a 50-year or
even 100-year flood event, he
said it was highly unusual and
resulted in flooding in parts of
the city never seen before.
“We’ve had high water
before, but on that day we had
so much rain so quickly, that
the areas that traditionally
flood did flood again,” Parr
said. “And some areas in the
past that had not flooded, we
found them somewhat prone to
retaining water. All the ditches
filled up so quickly there was
no place for the water to run off
to.”
At around 5:30 p.m. on Oct.
26, drivers on SH 249 in the
southern part of the city could
notice that drainage ditches on
both sides of the street were
reaching their full capacity or
beyond it, and drivers had to
merge into one lane heading
south on SH 249 to avoid a
large flowing puddle that
formed where Willow Creek
passes beneath the highway.
Parr said the Tomball Central
Fire Station had about 8 inches
of water in its parking lot, as
Quinn Road experienced flooding for the first time since he’s
been here.
But the most obviously
flooded part of Tomball was
Holderrieth Road, near the
southern border of the city.
After the Oct. 26 rain event,
Tomball Police Department
officers blocked off the road
which had high water from SH
249 all the way to S. Cherry
Street. The road was still
blocked as high water
remained as commuters traveled into the city on Oct. 27.
Tomball City Manager Ben
Griffin said that area of
Tomball has traditionally had
flooding problems, but help is
on the way.
“A large detention pond is
being constructed by the Harris
County Flood Control, and
after it’s completed, they’ll turn
it over to the city,” Griffin said.
“They’ve been working on it
for several years, it’ll be a huge
pond, about 80 acres, but it’ll
probably be another couple of
years until it’s ready.”
Griffin said the city will then
be responsible for digging
drainage channels throughout
the city to connect to the detention pond.
“The city still has to obtain
See FLOOD, page 5A
TROUBLED WATERS:
Many parts of the greater Tomball area were
affected by high water during the Oct. 26 rain
event. Parts of the city which traditionally receive
high water were affected, as well as other parts
1. Hardin Store Road in
Decker Prairie – north of
Tomball – was underwater
making it impossible to
pass through.
2. Telge Road –
Portions of Telge Road
from Boudreaux Road to
FM 2920 were underwater,
as Willow Creek went over
its banks. The water did
enter some homes in the
area, something that hasn’t
happened
since
Tropical Storm Allison.
3. Calvert Road – The
intersection at Calvert
Road and FM 2920 was
underwater, as well as
other portions of Calvert
Road.
4. Hicks Street – Hicks
Street at Liberty Lane
experienced flooding, and
is an area that traditionally
does experience high
water on the street.
5. Quinn Road – About
2
8 inches of rain accumulated in parking lot of
Tomball Fire Department’s
central fire station, and the
intersection of Quinn Road
and FM 2920 was also
underwater.
6. Zion Road – Portions
of Zion Road were underwater, as well as portions
of Hufsmith Road, parts of
the city not known to be
flood-prone.
7. FM 2978 – The intersection of FM 2978 at FM 2920
was underwater as well as
other portions of FM 2978 to
the north of the city limits.
8. Payless Parking Lot –
The parking lot of Payless
Shoe Source in the Four
1
that do not traditionally experience a problem.
This flood map was designed based on Tomball
city officials’ observations and reader reports of
high water.
Hardin Store Rd.
Zion Rd.
SH 249
6
FM 2978
7
4
5
FM 2920
3
8
9
FM 2920
SH 249
10
Holde
rrieth
Rd.
Graphic by LORRETA BLEVINS
Corners shopping center, was
inundated with water, as usual.
9. Lawrence Street – The
intersection of Lawrence Street
and Michel was under water,
near the Cobble Creek
Apartments.
10. Holderrieth Road – The
biggest trouble area for local
residents and motorists on Oct.
26 was Holderrieth Road near
the southern border of the city.
Though the area is prone to
flooding, Oct. 26’s rainfall
flooded some residents on that
road that have never been
flooded before, and Willow
Creek quickly surged beyond
its banks to accommodate the
rapid rainfall.
Page 4A, The Tomball Potpourri, November 8, 2006
Alarm, from page 1A
friend dared him to take the cover
all the way off.
THE ALARM SYSTEM
Frank Harmeier has seen for
himself what happens when the
cover of the district’s fire alarm
systems are removed. As a
teacher at the district’s alternative
education campus, Harmeier saw
a wayward-thrown basketball
knock the plastic cover off a fire
alarm two years ago when he was
teaching a gym class. When that
happened, district officials who
responded to the “nuisance
alarm” set off the actual fire
alarm while trying to place the
plastic cover back on the device,
he said.
Later, when a fellow staff
member was joking with him
about the incident, the colleague
doubted removing the cover
would cause an alarm to sound.
So the colleague lifted up the
cover after school hours – and
then had to explain to district
officials what happened, without
getting arrested.
The plastic cover and the actual fire alarm are two separate
alarm systems. Frank Harmeier
said the cover is actually a device
called “Stopper II with Horn and
Relay Flush Mount,” manufactured by Michigan-based Safety
Technology
International.
According to the Web site for the
manufacturer, the plastic cover
system is designed to “stop malicious and accidental false fire
alarms.”
Frank Harmeier still works at
the alternative education campus
in TISD, which he said places
him in an unusual position of
challenging his employers in an
attempt to defend his son. He and
his wife of 17 years, Jennifer
Harmeier, grew up in Tomball
and graduated from Tomball
High School. The couple has four
children who attend schools in
the district. Frank Harmeier said
that if it comes down to his job or
his son – he’d pick his son, and
said he has already sought the
legal advice of the Houstonbased Lanier Law Firm.
“Both of us have teaching certificates in the state of Texas,”
Jennifer Harmeier said. “We can
go anywhere in the state of
Texas, but you can only be parents in your own home.”
“And I have a Master’s degree
and am highly qualified in three
of the four core subjects,” Frank
Harmeier said. “I’m not worried
about it.”
Frank Harmeier said that as a
district employee, he has never
been formally trained about how
to use the fire alarm system.
Talking to other colleagues at
other campuses, he said he hasn’t
found one school district
employee that has been trained
about the two-part fire alarm system. He said when he had a conference with BIS’ principal – and
when he asked her if in her questioning of his son she had asked
him if he had removed the plastic
cover or pulled the actual fire
alarm – she told him staff at her
school had been trained in the
fire alarm system.
“I asked her if she could have
misunderstood or mistaken what
he said,” Frank Harmeier
recalled. “She said, ‘That’s not
the issue.’ She said, ‘He said he
pulled the alarm – that’s it.’ I find
it completely unbelievable that
her building is the only one
trained on this system. To hear
him cry at night as a consequence
of them not asking the right questions is unbearable.”
Stanfield,
the
district’s
spokesperson, said staff at BIS
had been trained on the system.
“The staff is aware that when
you first pull off the box, an initial alarm will sound and when
the fire alarm is pulled down, that
the entire system will go off,
causing a strobe light and siren
throughout the building as it did
in this instance,” Stanfield said.
Indeptendent School District,
will celebrate their 15th year of
Veterans’ Day ceremonies. BBES
Principal Susan Ward said the
school will host some 1,200 to
1,500 people, including 850 students and 75 staff, for a musical
tribute to veterans, beginning at 9
a.m., Nov. 10. This year’s activities will also include a Veterans
Museum which will be open to
the public Nov. 8 to 10, from
8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day.
Students have been bringing
items for the museum all week.
In addition, traditional fare of
coffee, donuts and snacks will be
offered on assembly day, beginning at 8:15 a.m. Students and
visitors will participate in the
annual balloon launch after the
assembly.
“We have veterans fly in from
all over the U.S.,” Ward said.
“Last year we had a 93-year-old
veteran attend. More than 1,000
invitations went home with our
students this year.”
While the BBES Veterans’ Day
program concentrates on families
and spouses of students and staff,
the Friday morning assembly is
open to all.
Over at Magnolia Elementary
School, 31900 Nichols Sawmill
Rd., an assembly will begin at 9
a.m. and will feature Lt. Col
Larry Ellis as guest speaker.
MES will also feature a Wall of
Honor along with entries in its
annual Veterans’ Day Poster
Contest.
Students who earned honors in
the school’s Veterans’ Day Essay
Contest will be reading at the
assembly. MES has invited veterans from Tomball, Conroe and
The Woodlands to participate and
be recognized.
Magnolia Junior High School
is offering two opportunities to
observe Veterans’ Day, on
Election Day. On Nov. 7, at 9:15
a.m. and again at 10:15 a.m., students from different grade levels
will gather in the auditorium.
MJHS
Counselor
Linda
Hadden said the new Magnolia
West High School choir will join
the MJHS choir to offer patriotic
music along with the MJHS
band. Former Magnolia ISD student Sgt. Karla Leal of the Texas
Army National Guard will be the
guest speaker.
The public is invited to come
early, register in the office and
attend this Veterans’ Day celebration on Election Day.
Magnolia High School’s Navy
Junior ROTC will present colors
and salute veterans in attendance
of the school’s general assembly
FELONY CHARGES
As of press time last week, it
was unclear if the Harris County
District Attorney’s office had
accepted the state jail felony
charges of a false alarm or report
forwarded by the Tomball Police
Department. Pulling a fire alarm
is normally a Class A misdemeanor, however the charges are
increased to a felony when they
happen on school grounds. The
charge holds the same classification of a bomb threat to a school.
The mother of the boy who
dared Harmeier to remove the
plastic cover did not want her
son’s name printed in The
Potpourri, but she did confirm
that her son received a punishment of five days of in-school
suspension for daring Harmeier.
She said she believes the story of
Harmeier only removing the fire
alarm’s cover because she has
also spoken to another parent
whose child witnessed the incident, and whose story coincides
with the two boys.
“To be quite honest, I think the
punishments in this case are a little severe,” Paula Hohl said. “I
would think you would look at a
child’s history and see if this is
like the last straw or something.
I’m just concerned for Casey –
what he just went through is
probably a lot worse than what he
did.”
TISD’s
spokesperson,
Stanfield, said the district works
closely with local law enforcement agencies such as the Harris
County Pct. 4 Constable’s Office
and the Tomball Police
Department to ensure that laws
are upheld in the district’s campuses. When The Potpourri asked
Stanfield if she thought it was
fair that Harmeier is being double-punished, once by the police
department and again by being
placed in the district’s alternative
education center for three weeks,
See ALARM, page 5A
Veterans, from page 1A
Lakewood Elementary School
will be coloring and posting
patriotic images throughout the
week, and daily announcements
will be made in honor of National
Veterans Awareness Week.
At Willow Wood Junior High
School on Nov. 10 LOTC students will host a flag ceremony.
In
addition,
Tomball
Intermediate School students are
entering an essay contest, and
winning essays will be read at the
Tomball Wal-Mart Veterans’ Day
ceremony Nov. 11.
Tomball High School students
are hosting a door decorating
contest. Also, all students and
visitors to the campus this week
will receive a red, white and blue
ribbon to wear. A “THS Salutes
Veterans” sign will be posted
outside the campus in honor of
all veterans.
Tomball Junior High School
will continue its tradition by
making posters honoring veterans — family, friends and others
— along with troops currently
serving in the military. The
posters will be displayed on the
campus grounds for the public to
view on Nov. 10.
VFW Post 2427, assisted by
THS Navy Junior ROTC, will be
selling Buddy Poppies at WalMart in Tomball before and on
Veterans’ Day, Nov. 11. Proceeds
from the poppies go to the
National Veterans Home which
houses veterans and their families in times of need.
Wal-Mart will once again host
its annual Veterans’ Day Salute, a
ceremony that is quickly becoming a local tradition. Patriotic
music, veterans’ salutes, and drill
team performances are scheduled
for this year’s event. The Tomball
High School Navy Junior ROTC
will present colors and area dignitaries will be on hand for the
ceremony set to begin at 10 a.m.
This event is open to the public at
no charge.
Students and staff at Bear
Branch Elementary School, 8909
FM 1488, in the Magnolia
VETERANS’ DAY TRIBUTE: Students at Salem Lutheran School in
Tomball display a flag during a program honoring area veterans. The
Christian school is inviting the community to two special assemblies
of worship, recognition, and thanksgiving in honor of the nation’s veterans on Nov. 10. The school’s celebration will be held at the campus’
Worship Center. Students present through their musical, written, and
theatrical work, “A Veterans’ Day Tribute” at 2 p.m. Salem is located at
22601 Lutheran Church Rd. For more information, visit the campus
Web site at www.salem4u.com or call 281-351-8223.
from 9:45 to 10:30 a.m. on Nov.
10. The campus is located at
14250 FM 1488.
Each branch of the service will
be recognized by the NJROTC
and retired U.S. Navy Capt.
Keith Arndt will be the guest
speaker.
While the city does not offer an
active Veterans of Foreign Wars
post, or other general public
assemblies for the day, local historian and Magnolia Depot supporter Celeste Graves said plans
are in the works for a Veterans
Day ceremony to be hosted at the
historic downtown depot in years
to come.
“This is something we have
talked about and something I
have long wanted to do, in honor
of our veterans,” she said. “I hope
we will be able to offer it next
year.”
For Veterans’ Day ceremonies
at other Magnolia ISD schools
not mentioned here, check the
Web
site
at:
www.magnoliaisd.org.
Potpourri Staff Writer Brandon
Moeller contributed to this story.
The Tomball Potpourri, November 8, 2006, Page 5A
Alarm, from page 4A
she said the district is responsible for providing a “safe and
nurturing learning environment.”
“In order to do that, we work
with law enforcement so they
can ensure laws are not violated,” Stanfield said. “In the
event a law is violated, that is
when law enforcement gets
involved and conducts an investigation. (The officers) have to
talk to students and teachers
and administrators before they
can make a judgment.”
The incident happened a little
after 10 a.m., and the 10-yearold student was placed in
Officer Overcast’s patrol car
around 2:15 p.m., according to
Harmeier’s parents who have
had meetings with district officials after the incident.
When he left the school
escorted by the officer without
handcuff restraints, Beckendorf
Intermediate’s principal called
the student’s mother.
“Why did it take four hours
for them to call me?” Jennifer
Harmeier asked. “He didn’t
know he had the right to call his
Flood,
from page 4A
additional property for the channels,” Griffin said. “Part of it is
the M-121 drainage channels,
which is another several million
dollars. Since we don’t have that
kind of money floating around,
we’re trying to get that done by
developers as we go. At one time
in the past, we had an estimate
about how much it would cost to
do all of the drainage at one time
in that area, and I believe it was
a $50 million price tag. You
can’t just stop everything and
work only on drainage.”
The annual budget for the city
of Tomball is around $40 million.
Griffin agreed that Oct. 26’s
rain event was unusual.
“On a normal basis, even a
heavy rain, we don’t have people flood,” Griffin said. “And
normally our streets don’t flood.
Most of our drainage is for new
development – and we have that
new development pay for the
drainage.”
E-mail Brandon Moeller at
[email protected].
parents. All he knew to do was
be respectful and not argue. I
don’t know how nurturing it is
to scare a 10-year-old child.
My child can not sign his own
permission slip for a field trip,
but he can be questioned, fingerprinted, photographed, and
sign his own police report – all
without a parent even being
contacted. In the eyes of the
school system and police
enforcement, he is only able to
participate in the liberties of an
adult as it would benefit the real
adults in the given situations.”
Frank Harmeier questions
whether his son’s rights were
violated during the at-school
interrogation without parents or
legal counsel present.
“According to the (TISD)
Student Handbook, parents
should be contacted,” Frank
Harmeier said. “They tell us to
read and know the handbook
because it’s what they’ll do, and
then in a situation they say, ‘We
chose not to.’ I feel like they
know they’re wrong, but they’re
not going to talk about it. I
know at some point – as long as
we do what we’re supposed to
do with the complaint process –
some where along the line
someone will say, ‘Man, we
really messed up.’”
The portion of the TISD
Intermediate School Student
Handbook that Frank Harmeier
was referring to,
related to the questioning of students
by police officers,
reads, “The principal ordinarily will
make reasonable
efforts to notify the
parents unless the
interviewer raises
what the principal
considers to be a
valid objection.”
Stanfield confirmed
that
Jennifer Harmeier
was called when her son left the
school to be transported to the
police station. But she said
school administrators and law
enforcement officers do not
have to ask a parent’s permission to interview students.
“It’s typical procedure for
school district officials to conduct an investigation and then
contact the parents,” Stanfield
said. “Law enforcement officers
don’t have to get permission to
talk to students and the principal has the authority to talk to
kids prior to notifying parents.
The campus has to conduct a
complete investigation prior to
contacting the parents – otherwise
they won’t know
what’s going on.”
Stanfield said
the gathering of
information takes
time.
“The principal
has to have all of
the factual information
before
contacting the parents and it takes
time to do that,”
Stanfield said. “It
took time to get the officer to
campus and it took time for the
officer to talk to the students.
It’s not instantaneous – it takes
time to talk to teachers, the
assistant principal and you have
to go through and talk to a lot of
different people to gather the
facts of what actually took
place. So the principal did contact the parent and that happened as the student was leav-
Photo by BRANDON MOELLER
ABOVE: Frank Harmeier stands with his son, 10-year-old Casey,
who was arrested at his intermediate school Oct. 25 for allegedly setting off a false fire alarm at the campus. LEFT, INSET: A graphic representation of the type of fire alarm Frank Harmeier claims is installed
at the campus his son attends.
ing the building with the officer.”
TPD officer Overcast did not
return a phone call prior to
press time.
E-mail Brandon Moeller at
[email protected].