Shadle Park High School among schools placed in ‘secure and teach’ after fight possibly involving weapon

An altercation between students and an “allegation of a weapon” sent three Spokane schools in the Audubon-Downriver Neighborhood into lockdown as police searched for the students who fled.

Officers were called late Thursday morning to Shadle Park High School for the incident. Officer Tricia Leming, spokeswoman for the department, said early Thursday afternoon that officers had not located the students involved. Police were still investigating, working through witness statements and video, she said in a text.

Shadle Park High Principal Chris Dunn wrote in an email late Thursday afternoon to school staff and families that an administrator at 11:43 a.m. witnessed a student with a firearm who immediately fled from campus.

Shadle Park High and nearby Glover Middle School and MAP middle and high schools were placed on lockdown as police searched for “an individual in the area, reportedly with a weapon,” according to an email at 12:02 p.m. from Spokane Public Schools to families and staff at the three schools.

The schools shifted into “secure and teach” 13 minutes later. That means learning activities continued as normal inside the school with exterior doors locked and monitored, the school district email said.

At about 12:55 p.m., Spokane Public Schools sent an email to the schools saying the district was notified by police that it believed the “suspect” was no longer in the area. The three schools remained in secure and teach for the remainder of the day “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the email.

Law enforcement and campus safety specialists also stayed at the schools for the rest of the school day and will continue to be on campus Friday.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday, Shadle Park High received a report of a potential bomb threat and another report of a gas leak, Dunn wrote in an email. Emergency responders determined both were unfounded and school proceeded as normal.

There’s no indication the threats and the gun incident were related.

“This morning, emergency services responded to our school out of an abundance of caution to investigate an unsubstantiated threat,” Shadle Park Principal Chris Dunn said in an email at 10:10 a.m. to Shadle Park families and staff. “Administrators and law enforcement worked together and found no actual threat to our school community.”