Multiple school threats in western Washington since Uvalde

Since the tragedy in Uvalde, several schools in Western Washington have gone into lockdown due to school threats. On June 2, La Conner High School and a middle school in Tacoma had police respond to those threats.

In Tacoma, a 13-year-old was arrested by police and faces several charges. According to the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, a 15-year-old was arrested.

Since May, Tacoma police have made five total arrests for kids with guns on school grounds, the police department tweeted.

Here are more details of the incident at La Conner High School from Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Chad Clark:

“On June 2, 2022, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office and the Swinomish Police Department jointly responded to La Conner High School after multiple 911 calls were made after a post on Facebook mentioned a student threatened to shoot students at the La Conner High School. Law enforcement confirmed there was no active threat to students and staff, and that the student was not at school. Detectives learned that the student made threats that would take place at a specific event in the future. Multiple students and staff members were interviewed, and probable cause was developed to arrest the 15-year-old student. The student was arrested and booked into Skagit County Juvenile Detention on Threats to Bomb or Injure Property and three (3) counts of Felony Harassment Threats to Kill. The case is still under investigation.”

KIRO7 spoke to Lt. Jeff Willard with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, who says any threat toward any school is taken very seriously by all of law enforcement.

“And if somebody makes the call, we are there to answer the call to help,” Lt. Willard said.

This is why he says all responses are all hands on deck.

“We want to get an officer on scene as soon as possible to stop the killings to stop the damage that’s going on. Whatever that might be,” Lt. Willard said.

Several other districts have had school threats and went into lockdown since Uvalde, such as Blaine School District and Cascade High School.

Lt. Willard says that while the incident at La Conner High School wasn’t a copycat case, he says people should always report any threat they see.

“I would much rather someone give me a phone call on something they interpret as threatening and we run down the lead and find out that is wasn’t or not say anything,” Lt. Willard said.

Because the authorities want to make sure all students are safe.

“Than in hindsight, we find out and go ‘boy, if we had known about this, we potentially could have help avert something like that,’” Lt. Willard said.

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