Camren Putman’s daughter, an eighth grader at Mt. Solo Middle School, was too anxious to attend classes Friday after a student posted threats against her school and several others online.
Putman said her daughter told her she was nervous that Mt. Solo’s phone rules — which only allow students to use phones at certain times of day and in emergencies — would leave her unable to call for help if something happened.
Mt. Solo Middle School, Cascade Middle School and a number of other local schools were the target of threats including photos of guns posted on Snapchat, which the Longview Police Department confirmed to be a hoax Tuesday.
Police arrested a Longview student suspected of making the threats Saturday, while officers arrested a Kalama student for making similar threats to the district’s high school on Monday. Police also investigated suspected threats this week in Castle Rock and Toledo schools.
Law enforcement describe these as part of “a national wave of threats” following a Sept. 4 shooting at a high school in Georgia that killed four people and injured nine. Youth counselors suggest monitoring kids’ social media use and openly talking about students’ concerns to ease panic.
The first threats
The arrested Longview student posted an image of a pistol and loaded magazines on Snapchat with text threatening people at Mt. Solo Middle School, saying he would see them on Monday, court records show. The threats were first reported to officials on Thursday evening.
“F—- all of yall at Mount solo i’ll see yall on Monday be ready or stay home …,” one message states.
Other Snapchat messages shared with The Daily News by a parent of a Longview student reference threats on other days against “Cascade,” Mark Morris High School, “KHS” and “CMS.”
Longview Police Capt. Branden McNew said the department was investigating connections to Kelso School District, as KHS and CMS may have referred to Kelso High School and Coweeman Middle School. He said Huntington Middle School was also mentioned in some posts.
Police were unable to determine whether all the threats were made by the same student because of how widely they were shared and reposted, but they are confident none of the threats are credible, McNew said.
According to court documents, the Longview student originally claimed he received the threatening message from another user whose real name he didn’t know. However, Snapchat confirmed to Longview police that the user in question had not been active within the last 30 days, and interviews with other youth suggested the student was the source of the threat.
The student called dispatch several hours later asking to speak with officers, and when they arrived the student’s mother said he admitted to finding the image and sending it to his friends. The student was then arrested.
McNew said one of the images shared originated in Ohio. A Snapchat message shared with The Daily News also shows that one of them can be found on Pinterest.
Sharing the same posts?
A similar situation occurred in Kalama. A 14-year-old Kalama High School student was arrested Monday morning after falsely telling a classmate he knew of about 30 people, including his cousin, who were planning on shooting Woodland, Kalama and Kelso schools, according to court documents.
Both the Kalama and Longview students face charges of threats to bomb or injure property, a class B felony. Under Washington law, the fact that the threat was a hoax is not a defense against prosecution.
The Kalama student was also accused of spreading social media posts containing threats, although he is only being charged for making the threats in person at school.
Kalama Police Chief Ralph Herrera said he can’t say for sure whether the Kalama posts shared are the same ones being investigated in Longview as a number of similar posts have been circulating throughout Southwest Washington, but he also saw at least one post referencing “KHS.”
Castle Rock High School and Toledo Middle School, in Lewis County, also recently had law enforcement investigate possible threats. The schools reported law enforcement investigated, but didn’t provide details on what the threats were or how they were made, adding that there are no current threats to the schools.
In July, the Cowlitz County Superior Court granted a protective order against an R.A. Long High School student who told school staff he wanted to do a school shooting and die by suicide by cop. The student is currently in mental health treatment and is prevented from having access to or purchasing firearms for one year by the protective order.
So far in 2024, Education Week reports there are have been 28 school shootings in which someone was injured or killed.
According to a project by The Washington Post that tracks both mass shootings and incidents targeting specific individuals, there have been 417 total school shootings since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, and the number of yearly shootings started to increase sharply in 2018. The project does not count accidental discharges that only harm the person handling the gun or suicides that did not pose a threat to students.
School response
Longview School District first became aware of the threats Thursday evening, said Rick Parrish, the executive director of communications and operations. The district worked with Longview police over the weekend to determine who made the threats and whether it was a legitimate concern, and sent a message to parents Sunday afternoon informing them about the investigation and the arrest.
Although police did not find the threats credible, officers were posted at all Longview middle and high schools Monday as a precaution and to help people feel more secure, McNew said.
Nick Shanmac, the communications and grants manager at Kalama School District, said Kalama schools also had an increased police presence. Putnam said she felt Longview School District should have canceled school Friday and Monday because of the threats made on those days.
“So many different things they could have done to make the parents feel like the district was actually taking precautions,” Putnam said. “They sent emails to everyone, but many parents didn’t receive the emails so had no idea until the kids were at school.”
Parrish said district emails are sent out automatically to all parents at a given school or all parents in the district, depending on the message. If parents did not receive them, they may need to update their contact information in Skyward, the school’s information system, or check their spam folder, he said.
Putnam said the threats were forwarded to her by multiple relatives and members of the recreational girl’s soccer team she coaches. By the time she saw the threat for Friday, she had already received an email from the district about it. Her husband called the school about a threat for Monday and was told district officials were already aware.
Putnam kept her daughter home from school on Friday because her daughter was worried that the school’s no-phone rule would leave her unable to contact her mother in the case of an emergency, she said.
The Mt. Solo student handbook says that students can only use their phones before and after school and during lunch, unless authorized by a school administrator or in the case of an emergency involving imminent physical danger.
Alisia Mahitka said she has two elementary school-aged children who attend Longview schools, and her best friend’s daughter attends Mt. Solo. Mahitka said she and her friend saw pictures of the threats, including a gun, on Snapchat.
“It’s just so scary for our kids in this community and all over the U.S. that are dealing with these threats,” said Mahitka. “I do believe social media plays a huge role when it comes to these threats.”
Coping with threats
Mt. Solo Middle School counselor Jill Whitright said she does not normally see many students who express concerns about violence in school, but the number tends to go up when incidents happen locally, like these threats.
Her strategy for helping students work through those anxieties, which she also recommends parents follow, is to focus on listening to their specific worries and ask open-ended questions while working through the issue. Once the student has shared what they’re thinking, it may be appropriate to correct inaccurate information they’ve seen or provide reassurance.
For example, she said she often points out specific safety measures and emergency procedures the school has in place.
At the Sept. 9 Longview School Board meeting, Parrish outlined improvements the district has been making to security, which include new fencing, camera upgrades and security vestibules. The district is also switching to a standardized set of emergency protocols shared with other Southwest Washington schools and has been working with the police department to run active threat training exercises.
“I think it’s important that students understand that schools are still one of the safest places people can be, statistically speaking,” Superintendent Karen Cloninger said.
One of the most important things when dealing with threats on social media is for students to not forward them to their peers, Whitright said. Doing so can spread panic and also makes it more difficult for law enforcement to trace where the threats came from.
Instead, students who are aware of a threat should inform a trusted adult at home or at school. They do not have to have seen the threat directly, Whitright said; hearing about it from someone else also counts as a plausible concern. For those who aren’t comfortable sharing directly, Longview School District has an anonymous tip system that can be used by both students and parents.
To help avoid stress about violence in schools, Whitright recommends that students limit their time on social media and avoid consuming too much negative news. She also advises parents to be mindful of how often they have the news playing on TV at home and whether they are having conversations about heavy topics with other adults in front of their children.
