Bomb threat evacuates Lewis and Clark, no explosives found

Lewis and Clark High School students and staff briefly evacuated the building Thursday afternoon after a bomb threat was phoned in, but police searching the building found no evidence of explosives. The school received the threat around 12:30 p.m., Spokane Police spokesman Cpl. Jordan Ferguson said. An explosives unit searched the school with a bomb sniffing dog before giving the all-clear around 1:45 p.m. About a dozen police officers helped secure the area around the school. Charlotte Wall, an 11th grader, said many students in her fourth period Spanish class thought the alarm was a drill, since they had a lockdown drill earlier this week. Staff quickly came on the school’s intercom saying, “This is not a drill” and telling students to evacuate immediately, she said. Everyone gathered at a field at Seventh Avenue and South Stevens Street, several blocks from the school. School administrators didn’t tell parents to pick students up, but some parents showed up after receiving calls from their students. Assistant Principal Theresa Meyer said the school has had several drills for emergencies this school year, but no real evacuations yet. Wall and other students said the last serious school evacuation they knew of was in 2012, when a Lewis and Clark student spilled hydrochloric acid on the floor during a chemistry lab. The group of students was relatively quiet as they waited for police to search the school, though several groaned audibly when teachers began telling them to head back inside. Police spokeswoman Teresa Fuller said the department will work with the school district to investigate the threat. “It’s a very serious thing to do,” she said.