Garfield High Scare

Update at 1:10 pm Told by Tim Robinson, the PIO for SPS, that yes, there was a bomb threat, students cleared school and sent to football field and SPD is investigating. 

End of update

Update at 1:07 pm. Told by SPD that "there is something happening there" but that I would have to ask the district's Public Information Officer. Can't be really serious if SPD is not on the scene. Will update as I learn more.

end of update

 I am being told by a parent that Garfield High evacuated today at 12:30 pm due to a "bomb threat." I cannot find info anywhere. No SPS tweet nor anything at Garfield's Facebook page. I tried calling the school but no answer. 

Anyone hearing anything?

Comments

Anonymous said…
They have evacuated the school and have now asked all the kids to go home. Not allowed to reenter the building.

Bulldog Parent
11/4/21, 1:27 PM
Anonymous said…
As Garfield parents, we were dining out when we started receiving messages about the incident shortly after noon, that the students had been evacuated onto the field in the rain. There was plenty of chatter among parents on the private families page. It took an hour or so for the first official messages to arrive via text/email/phone, once students had been dismissed. For our part, we assumed the bomb threat was a hoax. By the time we got home our kid was already there hosting some friends until their after-school activities. Later we received the message below from Principal Hart. (As a side note, the communications from the new principal Dr. Hart are an enormous improvement over Howard's.)

Dear Garfield Community,

I am following today’s urgent safety message with an update to share more complete details about an incident that occurred this afternoon.

Out of an abundance of caution, school was dismissed at 1:30 p.m. after a bomb threat phone call was received by the main switchboard around noon. We immediately contacted the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Public Schools Safety and Security Department. Simultaneously, the building was evacuated. The campus since has been declared safe and no threat was found. However, the incident is now under investigation by SPD.

During the process of evacuation, initial reports from SPD indicated that a thorough building sweep would take more than an hour to complete. At that time, a decision to dismiss school early was made due to the weather conditions and the needs of students. Parents were notified via email, robocall and Talking Points regarding our plans for dismissal and student pick-up.

Thank you to our staff, safety teams, law enforcement officers, and bus drivers for their quick action. You helped students move through the evacuation and dismissal process seamlessly. I also could not be more proud of our students for remaining flexible and calm. Finally, to our families, your patience and support this afternoon was greatly appreciated and continues to make our school community great.

School will resume tomorrow at its regular time. There will also be extra security present on campus as a precaution. We committed to continuously reviewing and refining our safety protocols to remain alert and vigilant.

As always, student/staff safety and providing effective instruction to every student remain our highest priorities. Please feel free to contact the school if you have any questions.  

In partnership,

Dr. Tarance Hart
Principal

*******
GHS Parent
11/5/21, 1:02 PM
Anonymous said…
To follow up, Garfield received another bomb threat via the main switchboard late on Friday, one day after the incident described above. Friday's threat came in just before school let out and so the students were dismissed as usual. Interestingly, the Seattle Parents-College Admissions FB page reported there were a rash of bomb threats made against several Ivy League colleges last week as well.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/07/ivy-league-cornell-brown-columbia-yale-bomb-threats-evacuations/6332927001/?fbclid=IwAR2qufTDgdG32PUWfIvc_2zsMAciZeJtRsH8cYPWmW4WymGW7Sirpf71-2g

*****
Dear Garfield Community,

I am writing to you now to let you know of another threatening phone call received in the school office today.

As with the call received yesterday, an anonymous individual today issued a bomb threat. The call came in at 3:20 p.m., and we alerted the district’s Safety & Security Department and called 911.

Because the call came so close to normal dismissal time, we made the decision to dismiss students three minutes early. This was not an evacuation, and regular dismissal procedures were followed.

While police did use bomb sniffing dogs to sweep the school yesterday, the SPD advised that a sweep was not necessary this afternoon. After school athletics and band practices are continuing as scheduled. School will resume as normal on Monday morning. 

Police have shared that the threat level seems low at this point. However, SPD’s investigation will continue, and both the school and the district are remaining focused.

Once again, thank you to our staff, safety teams and law enforcement officers for their quick action. To our families, we continue to deeply appreciate your patience and support.

As always, we remain very alert and vigilant as the safety of our students and staff is always the highest priority. Please feel free to contact the school if you have any questions.   

Sincerely,

Dr. Tarance Hart
Principal

********
GHS Parent

11/9/21, 9:01 AM
Anonymous said…
What is this private families page? help! I'm not in on the loop!
11/9/21, 5:40 PM
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