‘Facebook rumors’ place Seattle-area school on lockdown

SEATTLE — A Seattle-area high school was placed on lockdown as a precaution on Friday after police said they were responding to Internet rumors of a shooting there and an anonymous threat but had not received any emergency calls.

Interlake High School in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue was put on lockdown and classroom doors were locked with students inside, the Bellevue School District said in a statement on its website, KIROTV reports.

“As a precautionary measure, Interlake was placed in lockdown this morning at the start of the school day,” the district said. “Know that students and staff are safe and police and security are onsite.”

Bellevue Police said on Twitter they were investigating “Facebook rumors of a shooting” at the school but said the department had received no emergency calls of shots fired. They also said in a tweet police were investigating “unsubstantiated information about an anonymous threat” but added “No threat has been carried out at the school.”

Security was also heightened at Rogers High School in Puyallup, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Seattle, after a threatening message was scrawled on a bathroom wall, school officials said in a statement.

The threat, discovered Thursday, was against Rogers High School in general, school officials said, adding they called in extra security as a precaution, though they felt the campus was generally safe. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said an investigation was ongoing but gave no further details.

Last October, a popular 15-year-old opened fire on a cafeteria gathering of his cousins and three close friends at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, an hour’s drive north of Seattle, fatally shooting four teenagers before taking his own life. Further threats made against the school in January were later determined to be unfounded.