By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – An extra law enforcement presence, locked building doors and searches with metal detector wands at Centralia High School today is due to a suspicious note found yesterday, according to authorities.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Ed Petersen, public relations coordinator for the Centralia School DIstrict, says otherwise, it’s been a pretty normal day.
The sheriff’s office says a teacher yesterday around 11:40 a.m. found a folded up suspicious note on a ramp near one of the outdoor classrooms.
It did not contain a threat to any specific person, but its context was a general threat to possible people at the school, sheriff’s Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said this morning.
Breen said deputies and officers from the Centralia Police Department would be providing personnel at the school to assure the safety of students.
Centralia High School Principal Josue Lowe sent a message to parents yesterday evening informing them of the situation.
Lowe said that students would not be allowed to bring backpacks or duffel bags to school today and that arriving students would go through a checkpoint to be searched with metal detector wands.
All exterior doors were to be locked today and anyone entering the building would be subject to search, according to the school district.
The high school is on the 800 block of Eshom Road.
Breen said deputies are working to learn who wrote the note.
“The Centralia School District in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies will do everything within our power to find out who is making the threat and prosecute them accordingly,” Lowe stated.