Threatening texts prompt ‘soft lockdown’ at WR schools

Posted by Christopher S. Pineo | Feb 22, 2018 | News |

Submitted
This Facebook post from a Rio Grande High School student is similar to a text message received by Window Rock Unified School District officials this week. WRUSD schools were on “soft lockdown” this week.

WINDOW ROCK

The five schools of the Window Rock Unified School District went into a “soft lockdown” after a text message on Tuesday threatened a school shooting the next day.

“There’s two different lockdowns,” WRUSD Superintendent Lynnette Michalski told the Navajo Times. “There’s a hard lockdown and a soft lockdown. “A soft lockdown is where teaching still occurs,” she said, “however, the doors are locked so that people do not have entry to the classroom. A hard lockdown is when every single door and perimeter outside, everything, is locked. “We are not teaching,” she said, “but we are in a corner of the classroom out of visual eyesight of any window.” She said the school received threatening texts between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. “We did not have any reason to be in a hard lockdown, because we did not have any immediate threat or a found weapon,” Michalski said.

Window Rock High School, Tse’hootsooi’ Primary Learning Center, Tse’hootsooi’ Intermediate Learning Center, Tse’hootsooi’ Middle School, and Tse’hootsooi’ Dine Bi’Olta were all still in the soft lockdown as of noon Wednesday. Michalski said the school is working with Navajo Nation Police and Apache County Sheriff Department to investigate the incident.

She said the district has names of the senders of the threatening texts. “We do have those names, and that I cannot share,” she said. From what Michalski said, a family had received the texts as well as school authorities.

“The family that received the text messages were also interviewed by Navajo police,” she said. “At 6 a.m. this morning, we met to discuss the strategy for student safety,” Michalski said Wednesday.