An LBHS student was arrested on Tuesday for threatening to bring a gun to school and shoot. He has been charged with felony harassment and is being held at juvenile detention on $25,000 bond pending a court hearing next week.
This individual is separate from an earlier incident in which another LBHS student threatened to shoot protesters in Twisp.
The student is not being identified by law enforcement because he is a minor. He was arrested following a threat made on a school bus on Monday to another student that he would bring a gun to school and shoot. The child’s mother informed the principal, who contacted law enforcement and the mother of the child who made the threat.
Marshal Ty Sheehan told concerned parents at the MVE gymnasium last night that the mother was initially uncooperative with law enforcement, who went to the student’s address but did not find him there. The mother said she had a gun but the student did not have access to it. Later she told authorities the gun was somewhere else, away from the student, and she assumed it was still there.
Following the threat assessment and protocol, the student was prohibited from entering the school the following morning. Officers from the Winthrop Marshal’s office stood inside the LBHS entrances to apprehend the student.
MVE and modular buildings were not secured, according to Sheehan and Okanogan County Sheriff Paul Budrow, who held the impromptu meeting to answer parents’ questions following public comments at the regularly scheduled school board meeting last night.
After repeated contact with law enforcement, the student’s mother agreed to bring the student to the sheriff’s office on Tuesday morning, where he was arrested.
Parents expressed their anger to the school board last night about receiving a notification only on Tuesday morning as children were dropped off at school, even though the threat assessment and protocol were reviewed the night before.
Some parents expressed confusion about whether this was related to another incident where an LBHS student made threats to shoot people in Twisp. The two emails were sent within 12 hours of each other.
The email notification from LBHS Principal Elyse Darwood stated the following:
Dear Community,
Having received reports of statements made by a student yesterday that represented a potential threat, we worked through the threat assessment process late into the evening. Working through our safety protocol, we notified district leaders and law enforcement. The threat assessment process calls for the removal of the student until concerns about the potential threat can be resolved. In an abundance of caution, there will be law enforcement presence at Liberty Bell this morning.
In partnership,
Elyse Darwood
Principal
Liberty Bell Junior-Senior High
Budrow, who currently has six children in the school district and was present at the packed school board meeting at MVE library last night, said Darwood did everything right in following protocol, but parents were less than satisfied by the lack of transparency as well as privacy rules that prohibit the district and law enforcement from disclosing the name of the student who made the threats. Several said they relied on email chains from other concerned parents to understand what was going on.
Parents also expressed anger that nothing was done earlier about this student who had made threats to multiple students in earlier instances. Parents talked about a culture of bullying in the school district.
Donna Plowman, whose child attends second grade in MVE, said the student who was arrested made death threats to her child twice on the school bus at the beginning of this school year. She said she did not receive a response from Darwood or MVSD Superintendent Tom Venable after reporting it.
Plowman said the child put a pencil to her child’s throat and said he would stab him in the throat with it, told him he would find a knife and slit his throat and kill his kittens.
Budrow said the student could be released into the community and return to school, depending on the judge’s order. Because the defendant is a minor, law enforcement would not be notified when he is released. The student will have a mental health evaluation prior to being released and the judge can put conditions of release, such as no access to firearms, no alcohol, and requirement to attend counseling.
This is a developing story.
Great coverage, thank you!
Thank you.