Chehalis Police Officer Warren Ayers and school staff stand along the fence at Centralia High School as parents congregate at the church across the street waiting.
Updated at 4:05 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Centralia High School is in lock down now.
“Due to a specific type of threat of violence at the high school, I’m not going to release what that is now,” school district spokesperson Ed Petersen said at 11 a.m. today.
Nobody is hurt, he said. Law enforcement is on the scene.
They will be releasing students in the next hour or so to the nearby Church of God, he said.
Parents should not go to the school, he said. Parents should not go to the church either, until they are notified by the school to do so, he said.
Asked if they would be making notification through the school alert system, Petersen said yes and social media and every other way.
A joint news release issued at 11:37 a.m. stated students will be released as soon as appropriate.
“This morning at approximately 10 a.m. the Centralia School Resource Officer was notified of a note located in a classroom, which stated a student was planning on killing people during a school assembly, scheduled for the afternoon.”
At this time it is unknown if any weapons are actually at the school and the school remains in lockdown until further notice.
Students will be released to go home on the bus or be picked up by parents. Parents may wait at Centralia Community Church of God, located at Borst and Eshom. Students who drove will be allowed to leave when appropriate.
As of about 2 p.m., only a few students had been released from the school back to their parents.
A Washington State Patrol bomb squad truck was seen leaving Tiger Stadium shortly after that. Tonight was supposed to be the homecoming game.
A large crowd has gathered at the church, mostly just waiting. Busses have dropped off students there, five or six at a time.
Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza and Centralia Police Chief Carl Nielsen made a brief appearance, standing back as announcements were made that officials hoped to speed the process up.
Before going back across the street to the school, Snaza said only, “We’re getting additional information.”
“We’ll have more information for the news when the kids are out,” he said. “Stacy (Chief Deputy Brown) put something on Facebook.”
Centralia High School on Eshom Road sits outside the city limits and is in the sheriff’s office jurisdiction.
Law enforcement has issued no updates as to its investigation into what occurred, if any weapon or weapons have been located or if they even know who is the student who may have had some plan to kill people.
A school official did include in his announcements to those gathered at one point during the day, that: “The only weapons that have been found on Centralia High School campus today are in the hands of law enforcement officers.”
More to come. To read ongoing posts and comments from the community about this, go to Lewis County Sirens on Facebook.
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Parents and others wait for students to be brought to them at a church across the street from Centralia High School.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
It’s up to each school district to determine what level of security they want. Not enough and their is heck to pay if someone gets hurt. Too much, and they are part of a conspiracy to establish a military police force in the community.
Somewhere in between is reality.
142 school shootings since 2012 yet we can put men on the moon, build the best technology in the world but some how we cant stop school shootings. Lets call this operation Simple Schools, the security needed is far to simple. Metal detectors and armed gaurds at the entrance. Magnant lock fire doors with cameras. A security fence with check point. Also when marijuana became legal I thought that money was going to go to the school system. America is spending far to much money overseas and not on its own protection. What school will become 143. Until these measures are policy dont expect your kids school to be safe. Our Government has failed us over and over again. Expect school 143 to be this month people.
Stop school shootings now. Metal detectors at main entrance with armed gaurds. Fire and emergency exit doors locked with magnents until they need to be released in case of emergency with alarms and cameras on them. The solution is simple treat it just like airport security. Until this is done expect more shootings. You have to use your brain to save lives Law Enforcement, adapt this policy now or shut up and watch more school shootings happen because of your failed security measures that are easy to fix.