Students at Winlock Middle/High school stand in the football field after being evacuated for a bomb threat in March 2018.
Two bomb threats have disrupted studies at Winlock High School in the past two weeks, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, but in both cases no explosives were found.
The most recent incident was reported at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday at the school.
“A note was found in one of the men’s restrooms and it just had the words ‘bomb threat’ written on it,” said Chief Deputy Dusty Breen of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.“The school was evacuated, the (Washington State Patrol) brought in some bomb dogs, three bomb dogs from what I understand, to sweep the school for explosive devices.”
Nothing suspicious was found. The case is still under investigation.
However, in the previous incident, reported at 12:40 p.m. Sept. 25 at the school, deputies arrested a 15-year-old Vader boy on a felony charge of making a bomb threat and was referred to prosecutors on misdemeanor charges of disrupting school activities, Breen said.
That incident also involved a note written in a boys’ bathroom.
Three bomb threats were reported at Winlock High School between February and early May, 2018. All were false alarms. A 15-year-old student was arrested in one of those incidents. In that case, the boy told investigators he made the threat because he wanted to get out of school early, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported.
In light of the repeated threats at Winlock High School, Breen said his office is working proactively with the school to try to prevent future hoaxes.
Deputies participated in a school assembly Thursday to speak to students about the consequences of making a bomb threat, including crimes they could be charged with.
“There have been arrests out there,” he said. “You’d think there would be this, ‘Hey people are getting caught’ kind of deterrent. It’s interesting we’re still having this occur.”
Winlock High School Principal Brian Maley did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Chronicle
