La Pine HS student, 15, arrested for school shooting threats

(Update: Letter from schools superintendent to parents)

A 15-year-old La Pine High School student who had access to guns at his Sunriver home was arrested Wednesday on disorderly conduct charges, accused of three threats to students and staff at the school, the last involving a threatened shooting, though he had not brought a gun to school, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Around 7:30 a.m., a La Pine High School student approached the DCSO school resource officer who was arriving on campus about a possible threat to the safety of students and staff at the school, Sgt. William Bailey said in a news release.

The deputy immediately located and removed the identified suspect student from class, while other deputies responded to the school as a precaution, Bailey said.

“The initial information was about threats made in the past and were not of an impending nature,” he added.

Deputies worked throughout the morning, interviewing potential witnesses and the student. The investigation determined the 15-year-old “had made threats to the safety of students and staff on three occasions over the past two months,” Bailey wrote. “The most recent threat occurred two days ago and involved a threat of violence at the school involving the use of firearms.”

A search determined the student did not have a gun in his possession “or ever on school grounds,” Bailey said. “However, the student did have access to unsecured firearms in his home.”

The student who made the threats was taken into custody and lodged at the Deschutes County Juvenile Justice Facility in Bend on three counts of first-degree disorderly conduct.

“The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office takes any threat to the safety of our schools very seriously,” Bailey said. “Any threat to school safety will not be tolerated and investigated completely by our agency, in partnership with school officials.”

Bailey added, “This case is also a good reminder that all firearms in the home should be locked up and/or secured in a manner that keeps firearms out of the hands of people who should not have them.”

“We would also like to commend the student who came forward with the information to our school resource officer this morning,” the sergeant added. “This student followed the ‘See Something … Say Something’ campaign perfectly.”

Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Shay Mikalson sent a letter home to parents, the second this week involving school threats.

” It is our hope that parents can take a moment tonight to have age-appropriate conversations with their children about what they would consider a threat and how they would report suspicious activity, self-harm and/or violence toward others,” he wrote. “We believe that we can continue to work together to provide safe schools for our children by continuing to support our ‘see something, say something’ dialogue.

“While I am frustrated that another student allegedly threatened our well-being, I want to commend the student who reported this to our School Resource Officer and administration. I am very proud of this young person,” Mikalson added.