Two teens were taken into custody after allegedly causing disruption and making threats Thursday morning at 49th Street Academy, Vancouver Police Department Spokeswoman Kim Kapp said. No weapons were involved, and no one was injured.
The principal called 911 at about 10:45 a.m. after a situation with two students, ages 14 and 15, escalated, Kapp said. The students, whose names were not released, were disruptive in class and sent out of the locked instructional area, Kapp said.
“The males continued to escalate their behaviors and gained access to the locked instructional area again and began running through the hallways, hitting walls and making verbal threats to staff,” Kapp said.
Emergency dispatchers reported that the two boys were in the hallway threatening to “hurt you people,” according to emergency radio traffic monitored by The Columbian.
Police responded to the school at 14619 N.E. 49th St., adjacent to Burnt Bridge Creek Elementary, both of which went into a lockdown that lasted 10 minutes, said Kris Fay, Evergreen Public Schools spokesman.
Kapp said that the two boys were taken into custody and booked into the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center. The 15-year-old was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault for allegedly kicking a therapy ball at one of the faculty, disrupting school activities and harassment, which involved making threats to his parents, Kapp said. The 14-year-old was arrested on suspicion of disturbing school activities.
“Fortunately, they were contained pretty quickly,” Kapp said. “People are on high alert right now. It sounded pretty scary, but nobody was injured, and everything got settled.”
The 49th Street Academy is an Evergreen Public Schools facility that has two learning areas: one is a therapeutic day school for students with significant mental or physical challenges; the other serves students who are re-engaging in an educational program, with the goal of successfully returning to their original school environments.
Reporter Tom Vogt contributed to this story.
