High school patrolled after threat

Heightened security helped junior Emily Howard feel safe Friday despite rumors of threatened violence at Mount Spokane High School, but many of her fellow students felt otherwise.

More than 400 Mount Spokane students were absent Friday amid the rumors, officials said.

That’s nearly a third of the 1,300 students who attend the high school in northern Spokane County.

The rumors surrounded the recent accidental death of 16-year-old student Andrew Rosell. They included the possibility that a gun would be brought onto campus, according to an e-mail sent to school staff. Seven deputies were rotating in and around the school, in groups of three or four at a time, said Cal Johnson, Mead School District’s executive director of student services.

Rosell, a sophomore, was struck and killed by a Spokane recycling truck earlier this week. His funeral was Friday morning.

Some students had wanted to wear red bandannas – a common identifier of gang affiliation – in Rosell’s honor, Johnson said. School administrators would not allow the bandannas, which are banned from many high schools.

Although authorities have not determined that Rosell had any gang association, a member of Spokane’s Gang Enforcement Team attended the funeral.

“Anyone who went to the funeral wasn’t allowed back into the school, and police were guarding the front and back doors,” Howard said.

Johnson said the district believed there was no alternative but to ask the Sheriff’s Office to provide the extra security.

“We had a need to make sure parents knew their children were safe and that we were taking the threats seriously,” Johnson said. “We wouldn’t over-respond because of something that happened in another part of the country, although it is always in the back of your mind” following the recent mass shooting at Virginia Tech University.

Bob Coyle’s son, a sophomore, sent a text message from Mount Spokane to his mother’s cell phone saying he didn’t feel safe.

So Coyle picked up the teen and brought him home.

“If kids are at school and they have this in the back of their mind, it’s not going to be a productive day anyway,” Coyle said.

The rumors about a gun being brought to the school started Thursday, officials said. Some threats were made to particular students on MySpace.com.

Howard and Bob Coyle said they felt the school handled the situation well.

“With the amount of security they had out there, I felt they had it under control,” Coyle said.