‘She’s scared’: Parents want answers after 6 masked kids get inside Auburn school, assault students

AUBURN, Wash. — Some parents at Auburn Riverside High School are furious after half a dozen kids in masks made their way into the school and attacked multiple students.

This all happened on Monday and according to the Auburn School District, this all stems from fights that happened at the school the prior week.

The district provided this information that was sent out by Principal Janalyn McKeehan:

“Dear Auburn Riverside High School Families:

I want to let you know about two related incidents that happened at school today.

At about 10:30 a.m., a fight broke out between four students. The students who were involved in the fight were removed from campus. Unfortunately, after school, a few of these students came back on campus with a couple of non-students, and another fight occurred. This fight was related to the earlier incident. A school resource officer, Auburn Police Department (APD), school administrators, and the fire department responded to the fight. One student who was being cared for by the fire department was discovered to have a BB gun in their possession.

We appreciate our partnership with the APD. We know it can be concerning when there is additional police presence on campus.

We have had a number of families contact us already with video of the incident, or other information. We appreciate the outreach.

Safety is our top priority and I wanted you to go into this weekend having accurate information.”

Principal McKeehan sent this to parents about the events on Monday:

“Dear Auburn Riverside High School Families:

I want you to have accurate information about an incident that occurred on our campus today.

As you are aware, all outside doors of the school are locked during the school day. At about 1:00 p.m., we had six individuals, who were wearing masks, be let into the school through a side door by a student. This student thought they were supposed to be on campus, so the student opened the door. Unfortunately, these six individuals were not supposed to be on campus.

The individuals began running down the hall randomly hitting students. When quickly confronted by school administrators, they ran outside. I made the decision, after discussion with district administration and security, to put the school in a “secure and teach” mode from 1:00 p.m. until the end of the school day.

“Secure and teach” is used when schools shut and lock exterior and interior doors, limit hall passes and do not move from period to period. This gives the school more control on who is coming and going through the many entrance/exit points in the building. As a precaution, we also had a police presence from 2:00 p.m. until the buses left.

I wanted you to know our next steps for the week. Tomorrow and Wednesday, we will continue to have an increased police presence, increased school supervision, and a school resource officer on campus. We are working closely with APD to identify the individuals who came on campus today. Please remember the district also has an anonymous Safe Schools tip line to report any type of concern.

We know these incidents are concerning and holding these individuals accountable and keeping students and staff safe is our highest priority.”

“She said everybody started running. They said people came in and were masked and were pushing people out of the way,” Brandy Garber, whose daughter goes to the high school, said.

Garber said her kid hasn’t been back to school since, and says she isn’t sure if her kid’s school is safe.

“She’s scared. Then on the other side of it, she wants to go to school because she feels like her grades are dropping with me keeping her out. But as a parent, what do you do?” Garber said.

We took parents’ concerns to the school district who are, quite frankly, pretty frustrated by this.

“I was upset to hear about this, honestly. I was mad,” Superintendent Dr. Alan Spicciati said.

Superintendent Dr. Alan Spicciati said the kids that were let in were Auburn Riverside High School students not allowed on campus. He assured parents all schools in the district are safe.

“We hire three police officers as school resource officers. We’ve doubled our own school security staff at high schools,” Dr. Spicciati said.

He also assured parents the kids responsible will face some serious consequences.

“We have a lot of students and families upset about this. I’m upset. And we are going to take some very serious action because when you make choices, there is accountability,” Dr. Spicciati said.

Parents like Garber hope that’s true. She said if this becomes a new norm, then she will consider other options for her kid.

“I would definitely pull her if another incident happens like this. Especially if they can’t tell us if these people have been caught,” Garber said.

Auburn police said no arrests have been made and if anyone knows anything about these students, they are urged to give police a call.

No serious injuries were reported from the incident.

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