Confusion and anxiety swept through Sedro-Woolley High School on Monday, March 20th as Principal Kerri Carlton announced that students needed to immediately evacuate to the football field – and that it wasn’t a drill. 

This wasn’t the first time that all students and staff gathered at the football field that day. Just an hour earlier, students had reviewed emergency safety precautions with their advisors, to prepare for a situation just like this. 

As the entire student body waited for clarification on the matter, administration and the police were following the steps of the emergency evacuation plan methodically. 

“We got a call that there was some social media post about a bomb threat, we acted on it, the rest is still an ongoing investigation,” said Danny Crosby “I think the school did a great job getting the kids out, the kids did a great job getting to the proper location.” 

But even with everything going smoothly on the students’ side, transportation was a different matter with students having to go to a different location for buses, and parents having to pick up students behind the stadium. But it wasn’t just students who had trouble finding a way home.

“I couldn’t drive home, nor did I have a cellphone to call somebody to give me a ride,” said Teacher Drew Augnst. “So I had to borrow someone’s phone and call my mother to be picked up like I was in high school again.” 

Even though this bomb threat was fake, it did have real life repercussions for the staff and most importantly the student who did it.

“They will do an emergency expulsion until the investigation is done,” said Crosby. “Then after that, it’s just what transpires from the investigation. It’s difficult now because it’s still an open investigation, until they get done with that part, of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. It’s important that, y’know, students know that it’s a felony to make such threats, especially at a school.”