Bomb threat found

Oak Harbor High School was evacuated Friday morning after school employees found a bomb threat.

School District Superintendent Rick Schulte said that employees discovered the bomb threat in a girls bathroom Thursday afternoon after school dismissal. The school was searched that afternoon.

Because the bomb threat mentioned third period on Friday, students were evacuated from the school at the end of second period while police and staff searched the building.

Oak Harbor High School Principal Dwight Lundstrom said teachers were able to plan ahead for the evacuation.

“We kept it as minimal of a disruption as we could,” Lundstrom said.

He said the teachers met about how best to proceed. The field, where students are funneled to in the event of a bomb threat, was searched prior to school evacuation. Before heading out to the field, teachers did a quick search of their classroom to see if anything was out of place.

In all, students spent about an hour outside while police searched the school buildings.

Friday’s evacuation was the first bomb threat at the high school this year.

Bomb threats disrupted classes at Oak Harbor High School and Hillcrest Elementary School numerous times last school year. In each instance students were evacuated from the schools while police searched the building. Each case turned out to be a hoax.

Schulte said, even though officials had to deal with numerous hoaxes in the past year, they still take each threat seriously.

This time, Schulte said officials have an idea of who wrote the bomb threat. He said if they can prove who wrote the bomb threat, the student will be expelled.

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