The Edmonds School District (ESD) office received information about threats made by an MTHS  student towards the school’s safety on Thursday, March 23 around 3 p.m. The ESD office quickly reached out to MTHS Principal Greg Schellenberg and Assistant Principal Dan Falk. Administration acted quickly, and less than an hour after the district office got the tip, the student was arrested and emergency expelled. 

“If there’s a threat of that nature, then all of the business stops. So the only thing we work on at that point is understanding the threat,” Falk said. 

Later that evening, Schellenberg sent out a letter to families and staff about the incident. The end of the letter requested that students report any similar threats they may hear to avoid danger. 

“We want to thank those who reported this threat to staff. We also want to remind families to continue to talk to your students about, if you see or hear something, say something,” the email said. 

Despite not disclosing specifics about who the student was, the following day, suspicion and rumors about the student’s identity spread among the school. In response to this, students were advised to ask questions to administration and verify information they heard from peers or saw online. 

“It’s really the social media makes, really tends to amplify everything, right? And in this case, social media tends to amplify what the threat is,” Falk said. “There were all kinds of rumors going around the school today that I was chasing down about what was going on, ‘Was somebody on our campus?’ Those kinds of things.”

As of Friday afternoon, the student had been in court and was reported to have no intention to carry out their threat. Counselors are available to schedule a meeting with for anyone who wants to speak to someone about this to calm their nerves.