Fake gun scare causes school lockdown
January 28, 2009
By Laura Geggel
An individual who brought a fake gun to the Two Rivers Campus caused the lockdown of both Two Rivers School and North Bend Elementary Jan. 28.
John Urquhart, spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s department, said the department received a 911 call from a concerned citizen who reported seeing an individual with what appeared to be a gun drive onto the Two Rivers campus.
At about 3:20 p.m., law enforcement surrounded Two Rivers and promptly found a plastic part of a toy gun on the ground outside of the school.
“It was really much ado about nothing,” Urquhart said.
The police will not press charges. The Snoqualmie Valley School District will take appropriate action with the individual who brought the toy gun onto Two Rivers’ campus, wrote SVSD spokeswoman Carolyn Malcolm in a press release.
At the time of the incident, North Bend Elementary students were heading home. As some students walked by Two Rivers, law enforcement told them to go back inside North Bend Elementary.
“We got everybody back into the school,” said Dyan Schecterson, a special education aid at North Bend Elementary. “They did phenomenally well.”
“Students and staff who remained in both buildings were safe and secure for the duration of the lock-down,” Malcolm wrote.
Most students had already left the elementary school for the day, but staff herded about 20 students into the school’s resource room and put the school into lockdown, closing the blinds and locking the doors.
“I was scared,” fourth-grade student Emma Woodward said.
Schecterson said the children were on their best behavior.
“Everyone was talking at a whisper,” Schecterson said. “No one was running around.”
Monica Rutherford, a secretary at North Bend Elementary, said students practice lockdown drills about once every three months. Students practice earthquake and fire drills, as well.
The lockdown for both schools was lifted at about 4 p.m.
About 30 students were at Two Rivers during its lockdown, many of whom had stayed after school to attend meetings or do homework.
“While this emergency situation was clearly unsettling and disruptive for students, families and staff, we are pleased to report that both schools responded quickly and appropriately,” Malcolm wrote. “Please know that ensuring the safety of our students and staff was our first priority.”
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