Former Substitute Teacher Makes Threatening Remark Officials Increase Surveillance After Man’s Comments

Olympia School District officials have increased surveillance and warned parents of a possible threat to students made by a former substitute teacher.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, made the comments after administrators at The Evergreen State College refused to allow him to teach there, Thurston County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Bedford said.

“He made comments to a school counselor that someone should shoot some school children,” Bedford said. “He didn’t say he was going to do it.”

However, Olympia School District Superintendent Al Cohen sent letters home with students on Wednesday warning that the man had made “serious threatening remarks regarding killing lots of people in a school setting.”

“Because the threats did not specify a particular school, school district or college campus, both the North Thurston and Tumwater school districts have also been notified as well as other public and private schools in our area,” Cohen’s letter to parents read.

Evergreen campus police and the Olympia district were serving no trespassing orders on the man, according to the letter.

Olympia School District officials were notified Friday of the incident and circulated photographs of the man to school principals, said assistant superintendent Pat Gill.

“We became alarmed,” Gill said. “I don’t know if they were offhand remarks or if they were serious, but we can’t take a chance.”