Knappa Bomb Threat

Oddly enough I came across this article only about 20 minutes after my last post!
And some people wonder why I homeschool...

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By KARA HANSEN
The Daily Astorian

KNAPPA - The Knappa student responsible for the bomb threat that sparked a districtwide evacuation could face a civil lawsuit, Superintendent Rick Pass said as authorities scoured Knappa schools for evidence Monday afternoon.

An 18-year-old, Josh Hansen, was arrested in connection with the incident Monday night.

It was late morning when another student found the note warning a bomb was left in either the high school or Hilda Lahti Elementary, which shares the same grounds. Discovered in a high school restroom, the half-page letter said the schools "had better evacuate by 11:21, because that's when it was going off," the superintendent said.

Administrators emptied the buildings and loaded students onto buses with help from six drivers, who arrived within 10 minutes, Pass said. They drove to Big Creek Park, designated as a "staging area" for students to transfer to the appropriate buses for their rides home.

Parent-teacher conferences scheduled for Monday night were postponed until Nov. 26. The regular monthly school board meeting was also rescheduled, to Dec. 3. Other conferences continued as planned today, although students had already been granted the day off from school.

The bomb threat was Knappa's third in the past year, but the first of this school year. While no one was proven guilty in last year's hoaxes, Pass believed this case would be different.

"I think there are some good leads," he said Monday. "Then, I think we'll look at doing a civil lawsuit. We have approximately 80 staff members that are now off half a day, so there are quite a bit of wages involved there. ... Three times now this has happened, and it costs services."

After determining the threat of explosives was fake, authorities searched Knappa High School lockers and located a notebook with writing and torn-out pages they matched to the threatening note.

Clatsop County sheriff's deputies then interviewed Hansen, of Westport, and arrested him in connection with the hoax. Sheriff Tom Bergin said Hansen admitted writing the note. He was charged with disorderly conduct and initiating a false report and lodged overnight at the Clatsop County Jail.

Pass, the superintendent, said he was surprised. Hansen, who participated in track, attended Knappa schools on a courtesy enrollment from Clatskanie, outside the district, along with his younger brother and sister.

"He seems like really a nice young a man," Pass said. "It's not the stereotype I would think of. Of course, now the kids are safe, the next thing is to get him help. We're not going to drop that ball. We're going to make sure he gets that help."

In these circumstances, Pass said, he would normally recommend expelling a student, but the school board may also decide to revoke the courtesy enrollment that has allowed Hansen to attend Knappa schools. Under Oregon law, either Clatskanie or Knappa High must provide him with educational services, said Pass, because the accusations don't involve an actual weapon.