Police search near West Seattle High School for suspicious person(s)

9:26 AM: Information on this one is still a little sketchy – but it’s happening right now and we’ve received questions about why police cars were outside West Seattle High School, so here’s what we have found out so far: They are searching the area around the school for a report of one or two men seen with a knife or knives. The school district says WSHS went into “shelter in place” mode for this, around 8:45 am. According to Det. Mark Jamieson in the SPD media unit, so far they haven’t found anything or anyone. No one is reported hurt – by all accounts so far, this is just a case of someone seeing something alarming. If we get new information later, we’ll update.

10:12 AM UPDATE: The district says the “shelter in place” situation is over; police didn’t find the person(s) they were looking for, but again, everybody’s OK.

monroe1200 November 3, 2011 (10:54 am)

What about Lafayette Elementary? I would think that if the HS went into lock down, then so would the elementary school! I guess it’s time to call and find out.

monroe1200 November 3, 2011 (10:58 am)

Lafayette was not aware of this, which is not a good thing. The HS and the police should have informed them from the beginning! I don’t blame lafayette, I blame the people who had this information and didnt share it!

homesweethome November 3, 2011 (11:03 am)

And how about neighboring Hiawatha community center? Kids are leaving there to go to Lafayette from before care; at the same time kids are being dropped off for pre-school. Where we lived before surrounding schools were notified simultaneously – is there no such protocol here? If not, it should be changed immediately.

2 Much Whine November 3, 2011 (11:41 am)

Wait, we’ve got sketchy information that somebody (might be one person, maybe two) may have a knife (or maybe more) and now we’ve got to shut down every school in a 5 mile radius? Sounds like the trained professionals that responded to this situation took what information they had and made a judgement call based on what was known at the time. That’s what we are always asking for. Personally, I think they made the right call. Maybe we should have roadblocks set up and issue an amber alert in case something might happen someday to someone. . . . .

W.S Citizen November 3, 2011 (11:47 am)

^agreed

monroe1200 November 3, 2011 (12:23 pm)

I think informing the school should be the least they could have done. 2 Much Whine – It sounds like you have had 2 Much Wine. We are not asking for roadblocks and the like, we are asking that when a school goes into lock down, that they inform the school and daycare that are on the same property and across the street. If the HS though that they needed to be in lock down, than why would it be any different for the other school and community center? These are NOT 5 miles apart, these are a stones throw from each other. Nice try though with the exagerations…

ForeverAlone November 3, 2011 (4:29 pm)

I understand why you must be upset but, to tell you the truth I think that the main of this was to protect West seattle High students because they were trying to stab us with knives kthxbai

wshs smarty November 3, 2011 (4:33 pm)

Well first of all, the threat was towards the high school. I understand you fear for the little kids, but the person or people who made the threat were apparently asking students about the high school. The principal should have informed the surrounding elementary school and community center, but she was probably too busy trying to track down the threat to make sure that they weren’t inside the building.

monroe1200 November 4, 2011 (5:58 am)

Smarty – So the principal is the only person who can communicate with the other facilities? That seems pretty stupid. I am pretty sure that they have a process for this type of situation, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Schools get threats all the time, so I would be surprised if it isn’t outlined in a procedure manual. Also, do you not think that if a person was trying to hide or run from the scene that they wouldn’t possibly go into the other buildings on the property, and across the street? You can try to justify this non-action by the high school and the SPD, but sorry, I have children so I will always think that we should error on the side of safety. Apparently so does the high school when it comes to THEIR students, afterall they did put the school in a form of lock down. – just a concerned parent –

WS alum November 4, 2011 (10:37 pm)

Scary…I went to the school to pick mail and walked right in, past the security office, down the hallway, into the office and picked up mail in the staff mailroom. Left and never was asked who I was or why I was there. Saw the police officers in the office and just thought there must be ‘kid’ issue going on. Glad it wasn’t worse.

WSHS sophomore November 6, 2011 (10:42 pm)

I was at school during the shelter in place and one of my friends saw some people durning first period near the autoshop class with a knife and the autoshop teacher called the main office who called the police and went the teachers recieved emails from the main office informing them of the situation the whole school was put on ‘shelter in place’ for about 45 minutes.

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