Student brings gun to school

East Valley High School was locked down Friday afternoon after a 15-year-old student brought a loaded pistol into the school and threatened a teacher with it.

The boy went into the school store about 1 p.m. and told the Distributive Education Clubs of America teacher that he wanted into her adjoining classroom to talk to his former girlfriend, said Principal Jeff Miller.

When the teacher, Stephanie Lund, told the teen he could not go in, the student pulled a loaded and cocked .22-caliber, six-shot revolver from the front pocket of his pants, pointed it in the teacher’s face and demanded to enter the classroom, said Cpl. Dave Reagan, Spokane Valley Police spokesman.

“She did an exceptional job protecting her students from harm,” Miller said. “Even after he brandished the weapon, she said, ‘You’re not going into my classroom.’ ”

The teacher was able to calm the student down enough so that he put the gun back in the front pocket of his pants, Miller said. As Lund talked to the student, a security officer walked into the store.

“It was pure luck. She simply told the security officer that the student needed to go upstairs and talk to his counselor,” Miller said. “She was able to pass the student on to the security officer, and (the student) agreed to go.”

As the security officer turned to walk with the student, the teacher held her hand up to her head in the shape of a gun to alert the officer that the student had a weapon, Miller said.

“She didn’t want the student to see her; she didn’t want to agitate him any further,” Miller said.

Lund then alerted Miller, who called police.

“We’ve practiced this many times,” Miller said. “Everyone did a great job. Our kids were always safe because everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do.”

Miller put the school into lockdown, alerting students and staff over the intercom.

“They just said it wasn’t a drill,” said student Dylan Sattin, 17. “We were told to get into the corner of the classroom and wait. They didn’t say why.”

Many students called their parents with their cell phones from inside the school and told them the school was locked down, but they didn’t know why.

In addition to the East Valley students, the school’s gym was packed with more than 200 high school wrestlers from 16 area schools for a sub-regional tournament.

“Nobody really saw anything or heard anything,” Sattin said.

Miller and the security guards confronted the student in the counselor’s office and wrestled him to the ground in order to search him. At first, the boy denied having the weapon.

“We had him surrounded in a small office where there was not a lot of room for him to operate,” Miller said.

After calming the teen down and asking him to sit in a chair, a security guard performed a second search and found the gun in the teen’s pocket, near his groin, Miller said.

“We didn’t cancel the lockdown until the police had the gun secured,” Miller said.

The teen was arrested and booked into the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center on charges of second-degree assault. A misdemeanor charge of possession of a firearm on school property is pending.

The boy allegedly took the gun from the attic of a relative’s house, Reagan said.

School was let out at the regular time, and no bus routes were affected, said Judi Christianson, district information specialist. The school also called officials from all of the schools participating in the wrestling tournament and told them about the situation.

Miller said he plans to send a letter home to parents Monday. He said this is the first time in the school’s history that it has been locked down for a real emergency.

The boy was put under emergency expulsion Friday and will likely be permanently expelled following an investigation, Miller said.