Heritage High School was placed into a modified lockdown Friday afternoon after Clark County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of an individual shooting a gun near campus. No one was hurt.
Cmdr. Duncan Hoss told media at the scene that someone fired the weapon into the ground shortly after 1 p.m. at the softball fields near the campus’ edge. The school, located at 7825 N.E. 130th Ave., Vancouver, was placed under a lockdown as a precautionary measure, the district and law enforcement said.
Hoss declined to identify the suspect, but said the person was located and is being questioned. The type of firearm was not disclosed.
“We don’t have a lot of hard details yet. I only have the very top layer of information,” he said.
Authorities initially said the shooter was a student, whom they quickly identified, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian. Hoss and Evergreen Public Schools spokeswoman Gail Spolar declined to offer more information.
Students were released from the lockdown shortly after 2 p.m. for fifth period classes.
Nearby Sifton, York and Orchards elementary schools and Covington Middle School were also placed on modified lockdown during the incident. During a modified lockdown, the school doors are locked, and students are still in class learning, Spolar said.
“The kids knew what to do; the staff knew what to do,” Spolar said. “It happened exactly as we practiced.”
However, some students described a different scene inside their classrooms.
Yvette Nesukh, 17, exited the school after the lockdown was lifted and ran to her father, Vitaly Nesukh, who rushed to the school before the lockdown was lifted. She said all of the doors and windows in her classroom were locked, and students took cover on the floor.
“I was scared out of my mind,” Yvette Nesukh said. “I know for a fact people were texting their parents.”
Her father left his workplace in Portland when he heard what was happening, he said.
“I can’t tell you how I felt,” he said. “That’s why I ran over here.”
A letter sent by the district to parents classified Friday’s lockdown only as a response to “an incident in the area” and makes no mention of a gun at all.
“Our students were safe and never in danger,” Heritage Principal Derek Garrison wrote. “The lockout was a precautionary measure by our local law enforcement and school personnel.”
Rhonda Davis is the mother of two children at Heritage High School. She had swung by the school to bring her daughters a couple of presents when she spotted the sheriff’s office vehicles surrounding the school.
Davis received no information about the incident as it was ongoing, she said. The district issues automated alerts if her daughters are only a few minutes late to school, she said, so she was surprised she didn’t receive any immediate word from the district.
“It’s scary, especially if we don’t get a warning,” Davis said.
