Updated: Expect police presence at Woodway Campus Thursday, EWHS Dec. 8 after messages found at schools

Woodway Campus

Updated with information that there will also be a police presence at Edmonds-Woodway High School Dec. 8 following a Nov. 19 threat.

The Edmonds School District said there will be a police presence on the Woodway Campus in Edmonds Thursday after a student found a threatening message written on a bathroom wall at Scriber Lake High School Wednesday.

In addition, Edmonds police confirmed that they will also be providing a presence on the Edmonds-Woodway High School campus next Wednesday, Dec. 8 following a written threat on a bathroom wall there, which was discovered Nov. 19.

The Woodway Campus is located on the site of the former Woodway High School off 100th Avenue West in Edmonds. It houses Scriber Lake, Edmonds Heights K-12 and the district’s VOICE and WorkExperience programs.

According to the district, the student found the written message — “Dont come to school thursday” — at about 12:50 p.m. Wednesday at Scriber Lake High School and reported it directly to the administration. “The Edmonds Police Department is aware of the message, and, out of an abundance of caution, will provide some presence on campus tomorrow, Thursday 12-2-21,” the district said in an email to parents.

“No specific threat has been identified or associated with this, and our officer discussed the situation at length with school representatives,” Edmonds Acting Assistant Police Chief Josh McClure said. “At the same time, while there is no identified threat, we still encouraged the staff to be made aware and report any suspicious activity to 911,” he added.

“The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority,” the district email said. “We are monitoring the situation and will let you know if there are any further developments. Our community is strong, and we are grateful to the student who came forward and alerted the school to this message. We appreciate any additional information that students may have about this. Please talk with your student and encourage them to share with us if they know anything. ”

McClure said that Edmonds police also were asked to provide a presence at Edmonds-Woodway High School next week related to a threat  to “shoot up the school on Dec. 8,” which had been discovered by a student on an EWHS bathroom wall Nov. 19. In light of what happened with the school shootings in Michigan Tuesday, Nov. 30, which left four people dead, EWHS officials worked with police to develop a safety plan for the school Dec. 8, McClure said.

 

  1. This is a very serious reminder of why we desperately need to have at least one school resource officer in our schools.

    Kids safety and well being should always take precedent over pointless political stunts. The decision to remove school resource officers from schools in the Edmonds public school district did nothing but hurt everyone involved.

    If people are scared about interacting with police, than starting healthy relationships early is the best way for them to have healthy relationships with law enforcement later in life.
    For everyone else, the very real risk of school shootings is more than enough reason in and of itself to have a school resource officer on site.

  2. I agree with Evan Nelson’s message that it was a very bad decision to drop the High School Resource Officers who worked in the Edmonds School District. Most students thought their presence was beneficial, and most parents agreed. It was unfortunate that this decision was swayed by just a few dramatic, outspoken individuals.

  3. Having had a child recently graduate from EW, these type situations just put a huge knot in my stomach. The type conversations I had to have with my child were like living in an alternative reality.
    I can not understand how as a civil society we don’t have reasonable gun control and how it is possible for guns to be used so casually.
    Yes, people who want to cause damage will find a way – using whatever tools are available. We don’t need to make guns the easiest tool to find.
    What a horrible world we must be living in if school shootings are common place.

  4. Agree with all said by others, but don’t we also need to handle the availability of guns? We have more shootings than every and responsible gun owners aren’t happy with that just as we are. We are the one country where so many school shootings happen, and dealing with this needs to be a priority for the safety of kids.

  5. This is not about guns. This is the result of a cultural breakdown in society over the past four decades or so. No one wants to deal with that aspect so here we are, blaming an inanimate “tool” which does nothing until picked up by a person and used for good or evil. I do not see anything about calling out all of the ultra-violent and desensitizing video games that far too many young are addicted to or the proliferation of managing kids with psychotropic drugs.

    1. In many respects, it is about the guns. Other cultures are exposed to those same violent games and images, but firearms are much harder to acquire, and gun violence is much less prevalent.

    2. You can’t hammer a nail without a hammer. You can’t shoot people without a gun. This is about guns as much as it is about people. A “solution” requires looking at both parts of the problem.

  6. My understanding is that Woodway Campus actually dos have a school resource officer onsite.

    Also is important to note that Oxford High (Michigan) had armed security onsite. The shooter still managed to kill 4.

    1. I think the Woodway campus was among the schools that dropped resource officers, but that there was to be an officer there yesterday and possibly on the 8th. Do you know, Teresa?
      I wonder if the death count would be even higher if Oxford High hadn’t had an officer on campus.

      1. i don’t believe Scriber has ever had a school resource officer. If memory serves, a proposal to put one there is what launched a discussion about the need for them in any district high school. (I covered that initial story.) — Teresa

  7. And it bothers me that kids/teens have access to guns. Other types of assault are less damaging that a gun that can be fired many times. I don’t feel safe with those on the streets. Some teens use BB guns, but I can’t tell the difference when they carry them, and it scares me.

  8. This guns and automobile comparison is very interesting. Both of these machines have become modern day expressions of and symbols of the concept of individual freedom and freedoms for Americans. When our primary laws (the Constitution and Bill of Rights) were written the “gun” was a one or two shot very basic weapon and the automobile wasn’t even conceived of yet.

    We seem to realize as a society that the modern automobile has to have strict rules and regulations, regularly enforced, for it not to be a very dangerous and lethal thing; not being used or useful as intended. The gun on the other hand, has become highly advanced and exponentially more lethal, but we refuse to put any sort of meaningful enforced rules and regulations on it in terms of size and capacity to inflict harm. The NRA and gun lobby, for example, wants us to believe that the periodic shooting rampage by the deranged is just the price we have to pay for living in a “free(to bear arms)” society.

    I do believe that the free press and the right to keep and bear arms are two very critical components of our ability to be and continue to be a free people. A Judiciary independent of politics is the third leg of this freedom stool we rest on as a people. On the other hand, these freedoms have to come with some firm rules and regulations attached, or “individual freedom” just becomes a form of anarchy and chaos with might over right being our standard operating procedure.

    1. Clinton, your first point is wrong. Automatic guns were openly discussed by the framers of the Constitution and those wanting the Bill of Rights prior to the ratification. People oft point to the Puckle Gun (circa 1718) as an example of repeating/automatic guns that were widely known of. There are ton of different guns patented long before 1776 that were in the lexicon. Cannons. Most often cannons aren’t loaded with a single ball. They were loaded with many different types of shots/cannisters. Cannons are allowed under 2A, and they shoot many bullets with a single trigger. The British had a standing order to break the trunnions of cannons held by private citizens when discovered.

      Why didn’t the strict rules and regulations you want on guns, which exist for automobiles, stop what happened in Waukesha? We are seeing an order of magnitude increase in homicides everywhere. Killers are let out on cheap or no bail. The US is on the precipice of being a failed state because of Democrats.

      1. Matt, the Framers would be shocked at today’s AR-15s, enormous firepower that can be acquired by most anyone for a few day’s take-home pay. They contemplated nothing of the sort when drafting the 2nd Amendment in 1789.

        There’s also the insanity of parents who think it cool to buy their 15-year-old son a Sig Sauer SP2022 as an early Christmas present. Most of us are sick of the gun violence that we’re now enduring in this country. Clint’s points are entirely appropriate. Steps can and should be taken to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. The Second Amendment is not a suicide pact.

        1. The 30-06 I hunted with as a -teen- was more of a gun than the AR-15 I have today. The Founders would be just as ‘shocked’ by my 30-06. The Founders would be shocked by the internet. That doesn’t mean the 1st Amendment is antiquated.

          Why not lock up violent criminals? People straight up barricaded police in their police station in Seattle and set it on fire. Your (Roger and Clinton’s) social/criminal policies are causing gun violence, -and- knife violence, -and- vehicular violence. No one seemed to be scrambling to the internet to advocate gun laws after the shooting at the Senior Citizen Center. Why not? Why not answer the Waukesha question?

  9. I would agree that the U.S. has some major problems , but it is no where near being “a failed state” caused by either Democrats or Republicans. The fact is, we are an incredibly strong state and our military and economic strength is admired and respected all over the world. Our general standard of living is quite high and we generally have good health care systems and good access to life saving treatment and drugs. Our fragile democracy based mainly on honorable men doing honorable things and the rule of law replacing the rule of strong man control, recently held up in spite of an illegal attempt to overthrow the government by a would be strong man/dictator with use of the Big Lie.

    We need to solve some problems for sure. Housing costs too much, illegal drug use (both prescription and controlled substances) is a drag on our economy and general well being, and gun violence is an epidemic that will have to be addressed more intelligently sometime in the near future. Our prisons are over crowded and contain way too many non-violent offenders. It’s all solvable if we have the good will and patience to do it as a united people working with some reason and common sense. We can’t let hatred win the day and we can’t let the dividers at both extremes of our politics destroy our great democratic experiment.

    Most people doing the right thing will be our salvation in the end, as has been the case since we became a nation. We also need to try to make things more right with African decent people and American Indigenous people who paid much of the price of what it cost for us to become an independent democratic state; and that is doable too with a little open minded thought and understanding by most of the people most of the time.

  10. Oh my God. Can we stop talking about all the gun semantics here? Kids are shooting up schools in America and killing other kids because they don’t feel heard, and they are lonely. They are bullied. And parents on both sides of this are NOT PAYING ATTENTION. Furthermore, our kids are numb to this now. It’s alarming. Parents are on devices, games, internet, posting ridiculously embarrassing TikToks at 45 years old for Christ’s sake. Get a life.
    We are just as much to blame. Parents are distracted. Not enough quality time. Can we parents just take a smidge of accountability here?! Lock up your stupid guns if you have them and talk to your kids. Spend time with them. I can’t even stomach this stupidity.

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