Nervous schools in session

On Columbine anniversary, most districts stay open

Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 20, 2007 at midnight

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Students at most schools are expected to be in class today, the eighth anniversary of the Columbine slayings, despite days of turmoil and threats in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.

All Boulder Valley District schools are closed for a previously scheduled teacher development day and Columbine will be shut as it has for past anniversaries.

Other districts hope to conduct business as usual, but some worry that may not be easy.

For yet another day, violent threats forced several schools around the metro area to go on lockdown Thursday.

West High School was placed on modified lockdown from 9:30 a.m. until the end of the day after someone called 911 and threatened to shoot up the school.

Littleton High School was on lockdown from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. after a caller said a bomb was in the parking lot.

At 2:15 p.m., a student at Kearney Middle School was removed from class after allegedly making a bomb threat. The school was evacuated and the rest of the district was placed on modified lockdown.

The incidents Thursday followed the arrest Tuesday of an East High School student accused of making threatening statements and interfering with an educational institution.

The threats this week have rolled into schools like West High School, which hadn't had a real lockdown in more than a year, the principal said.

"It would strongly suggest that a lot of those threats were stimulated by the tragedy at Virginia Tech," said David Silber, professor emeritus at George Washington University in Washington D.C.

"In a culture of guns, it's a tragedy when it occurs, but it shouldn't be unexpected," Silber said.

Denver police beefed up security at West High School after the threat. The call originated from outside of the school.

"The schools are being very cautious," said Sonny Jackson, Denver police spokesman. "It's something we saw after Columbine and it's what we're seeing now."

Denver police said the East High School student arrested Tuesday was taken into custody.

The student, who was not named, is being charged with interfering with faculty and staff at an educational institution and making a credible threat, according to a letter written by the school's principal, Kathy Callum.

East High students asked Callum to postpone a Holocaust event that had been scheduled for today, but the principal would not discuss whether the request was linked to the threat.

Thursday incidents

• Evacuations

Kearney Middle School in Commerce City

• Lockdowns

West High School in Denver

Littleton High School in Littleton

Fourteen schools in Adams County 14

• Arrests reported Thursday

One student at East High School in Denver

• Anyone with information related to a threat is asked to call local police or the Safe to Tell 24-hour hotline at 1-877-542-7233.

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