A 25-minute-long lockdown at three Central Kitsap schools today has been lifted after law enforcement determined a gun threat was unsubstantiated.
“The school did go into a lockdown,” said Sgt. Ken Dickinson of the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office. “I think it was fairly short-lived.”
According to the district, Central Kitsap High School, Westside Alternative School and Central Kitsap Junior High were affected. All three schools are clustered near Anderson Hill Road.
Dickinson said the lockdown began when someone notified the school of a possibility that someone might show up with a handgun.
He said sheriff’s deputies arrived and determined it was an unsubstantiated threat and that there was no mention of a handgun in any of their interviews.
“We are continuing to investigate,” Dickinson said.
David Beil, communications director for CKSD said the schools went on lockdown at 11:55 a.m. and were cleared at 12:20 p.m.
“This is something that we practice and we drill with students,” Beil said.
Just yesterday CKSD Board President Mark Gaines spoke about a recent safety meeting hosted by the Olympic Educational Service District.
“The purpose of the forum was to look holistically at the ESD level of how each one of the districts handled safety and security of their facilities,” Gaines said.
“We’re obviously aware of the threats to schools from shooters and those kinds of things. We’ve had a number of those nationwide that have been pretty devastating. We talked a lot about what does our district do in that area and what should we be doing in that area?”
“I think each school is very unique as far as how they’re configured: Do they have interior doors they can isolate the classroom from the building, or not? What is emergency response time look like at each one of those schools?”
District Superintendent David McVicker said buildings could be assessed for inexpensive safety modifications.
“The initial piece is how do we better help staff in particular know that in any emergency, a real emergency, you’re going to have to make decisions,” and to get used to being flexible.
“Whether it’s ‘these exits are closed and you didn’t know that,’ or ‘we’re going to have a drill in the middle of lunch, how do you do that?'”
The district plans on holding a safety drill in February.
