Bomb threat closes school
<p>Coeur d'Alene Police officer Allen Speer watches a student walk past a barricade Monday at one of the entrances of Lake City High. The school was locked down and students were evacuated after the school officials received a bomb threat.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - A bomb threat forced an early end to instruction Monday at Lake City High School.
High school administrators notified the Coeur d'Alene School District's central office at 11:38 a.m., that they were in receipt of a note stating a bomb was set to go off at the school.
Police were immediately notified, said district spokeswoman Laura Rumpler.
"We also immediately initiated our rapid response plan, and the school was locked down," Rumpler said.
Students were kept in rooms in the school building until law enforcement officers were able to secure enough of the area for students to be evacuated from the building. The students were then moved to a safe location on school grounds.
The school district initiated a "controlled release" of students, and allowed those who walked to school to leave the grounds about 1:30 p.m.
Adam Jensen, an 11th-grade student, was at lunch when the lockdown began. He and other students were brought into a conference room in the school's main office to await further instructions.
Jensen said he wasn't worried by the threat.
"It was handled well," he said.
Students who rely on school buses for transportation were bussed to the Kootenai County Fairgrounds on Government Way. They were then taken home by bus along their normal routes.
Students who drove cars to school were not allowed to go to their vehicles until 3 p.m. when police declared the school and grounds were clear of any threat.
Coeur d'Alene Police Department officers responded, and received support from Idaho State Police. Members of the Transportation Security Administration's regional K-9 team swept the school.
Police declared the school was clear of threats at 3 p.m., and reopened the building.
The note was found by a student who brought it in to the school office, said Coeur d'Alene Police Sgt. Christie Wood.
Further details about the note will not be released while the incident is being investigated, she said.
"Lake City High School has a very good surveillance system," Wood said. "We will be using that to find a suspect."
Wood encouraged anyone with information about a possible suspect to call the Coeur d'Alene Police Department.
In a separate incident, police responded to a report of a suspicious package outside Woodland Middle School. That school was placed on lockdown for a short period of time until police determined the package was not a threat.