Sultan School District keeps classes going after online threat

Sultan School District classes were delayed by two hours on Tuesday after an anonymous violent threat was reported late Monday night.

The message was posted through Sarahah.com, a website that allows people to send comments anonymously. Parents of school district students shared images of the threat on social media. It read: “I'm in your second period class and I'm gonna bring a gun to the school this is not a joke so don't go to school tomorrow if u want to live I'm serious.”

The threat was made against Sultan High School, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.  Specific staff and students did not appear to be targeted, according to the agency, although the message was also forwarded to a student at Sultan Middle School, according to a release from district superintendent Dan Chaplik.

“There will be a significant presence of law enforcement on our campuses including our school resource officer,” Chaplik stated in his release. “These are very difficult situations that create challenging decisions for parents to make.”

The school district has four schools that serve the communities of Sultan, Startup, Gold Bar and Index.

Sultan high, middle and elementary schools are located within a mile of one another in Sultan. Gold Bar Elementary School is about seven miles east in the neighboring town.

Parent Amber Martin chose to keep her fourth-grader home from Gold Bar Elementary all day Tuesday. She doesn't plan to send her daughter back to class until more information on the suspect is known. She said she didn't entirely understand the school district's decision to open up the schools at all that day.

“If you don't know who it is, and you don't have the person who did it, how do you know they are still not going to be there?” Martin said. “All of the schools are in such close proximity, if whoever it was ran, he could end up at one of the other schools.”

Martin said other parents she has spoken with feel similarly. She also said she wished more information was made available to families.

On Monday evening she missed a phone call from the school district while putting her two sons to bed. She said she did not receive a voicemail — one is usually left though. Most of the information about the delayed start she found out through online forums and on the school district's Facebook page.

Martin said her husband called their daughter's school to let them know she would be absent Tuesday. She said staff was supportive of the decision, and the fourth-grader was given an excused absence.

“I told her there was no school today, and she asked why,” Martin said. “I didn't go into too much detail. I said, ‘There is a kid that said he wanted to hurt people, and so until they know who that is, until the school is safe, we are going to keep you home.’”

Part way through the day Chaplik sent out another notification. He wrote that the investigation was being handled by law enforcement. He also explained the choice to delay classes.

“The late start decision was made after looking at the limited facts that we have and consulting with law enforcement officials to allow time for law enforcement clearance and presence within the district,” he wrote. “Part of the issue with anonymous posting forums/apps/websites is that they are very difficult for law enforcement to trace and track down the validity of what was posted and who posted them.”

Chaplik thanked the people who reported the threat. Later that evening, he wrote in another release that nothing unusual had occurred on any of the four campuses, other than lowered attendance and a high number of law enforcement officers.

In the release, Chaplik encouraged parents to talk with their students about the threat. He asked  that any information that is discovered be brought to the attention of the district and law enforcement.

“These situations are very difficult to navigate and it is especially difficult in that the post was made on the very evening that we were all trying to make sense of incidents that took place in Las Vegas,” he wrote. “I can assure you that we will continue to utilize every tool available to figure out who did this, and when we find them we will take action to the maximum extent possible.”

Classes resumed normally on Wednesday. Chaplik reported law enforcement would remain present throughout the district, and “there may continue to be subtle changes in each of the buildings with the intent to make the campuses safer.”

Chaplik could not be reached by the Monitor for more comment.