Evergreen Public Schools officials and Mountain View High School administrators did not inform teachers and staff of a shooting threat made against the school late Monday morning until after the school day ended.
Two teens, one of whom was a former Mountain View student, were arrested Monday afternoon on suspicion of being in possession of firearms on school grounds. Court records show that earlier that morning, Mekhi Parker, one of the teens arrested, sent messages to a current Mountain View student threatening gun violence against another student as part of a personal dispute.
Parker’s messages via Snapchat to the student said: “We finna make another lockdown,” and “We finna show up n shoot outside the school make everyone go home so we see who come out,” court records state.
The student who received the messages showed them to the school’s dean of students, Emily Page, about 11:45 a.m. District spokesman Craig Birnbach said Page called Vancouver police to report the threats at 11:50 a.m.
Court records show Officer Andrea Bauman was dispatched to the scene at 12:05 p.m. and arrested Parker and Azaviaer Johnson after seeing them approaching a school entrance. Both were in possession of loaded firearms, but no one was harmed.
Parker admitted to the responding officer he had sent the messages earlier but that he hadn’t intended to carry out the threats, according to court records.
Birnbach said Mountain View staff were not made aware of the nature of the threat until later that afternoon after school had ended, stating district leaders needed time to understand what had happened.
A Wednesday morning email from a teacher, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said several Mountain View staff members are angry about the district’s response to the incident, and they don’t understand the decision not to place the school under lockdown. According to the teacher, staff were not even aware that police had been dispatched to the school that afternoon
Interim Superintendent Christine Moloney said Wednesday afternoon that, in hindsight, the district could have approached that decision differently.
“Part of our after-action review for safety incidents is to listen to staff, students and families to learn what we can do better in the future. We recognize the need for our staff to be informed about safety situations and that, in this particular incident, communication with staff could have been better,” Moloney said in an email. “Again, we are thankful and relieved that the work that was collectively done by those involved led to a safe result on Monday with nobody being hurt.”
Responding differently
Earlier that day, the school went into lockdown for 10 minutes for a student experiencing a mental health emergency in the parking lot, which was unrelated to the later threat. Parents were notified of the incident as it was underway.
Birnbach said in that case, police instructed the school to go into lockdown but did not do so for the afternoon incident, nor suggest other security measures.
The school has the ability to independently decide to go into lockdown or enforce other, lesser security measures without any such instruction from police, Birnbach said.
Moloney also said at Tuesday evening’s school board meeting that, based on conversations with Mountain View staff, the school could have responded to both incidents differently.
“Even though we were not advised to go into any type of protective status by law enforcement, we could have put Mountain View into a ‘secure’ status as soon as police were making contact with the involved people (in the later incident),” Moloney said at the meeting.
Under a secure status, nobody can enter or exit the school building, and exterior doors are locked, but people inside can move freely about the building. Moloney said this status was likely the best option for the morning incident as well, as opposed to a full lockdown. A lockdown is for more serious emergencies: Students must stay in their classrooms, all doors are locked and lights are turned off.
For more information about security procedures in Evergreen Public Schools, visit the district’s website at https://www.evergreenps.org/safety-and-security.
