Threat made against Hazen High Wednesday was a hoax

Published 4:03 pm Wednesday, October 29, 2014

A threat to Hazen High School students made on Facebook by a non-student and then tweeted by two Hazen students Wednesday was investigated and found to be a hoax, according to the Renton School District.

The school wasn’t placed in lockdown and the day’s routine was maintained, although about a dozen of Hazen’s roughly 1,200 students decided to go home with parents, according to district spokesman Randy Matheson.

“We were on heightened alert,” Matheson said, but there was no reason to release students.

Additional school district security officers responded. Renton Police officers were called to Hazen to provide a presence to help make everyone feel safe, he said.

“Even though we didn’t think the threat was credible, we treated it as if it were,” he said.

A Hazen student saw the Facebook page containing the threat to harm students and brought it to the attention of Hazen staff at about 9:30 a.m., according to Matheson.

By 11 a.m. an investigation determined that the two students who tweeted the threat hoped to cancel school for the day, Matheson said. They were removed from the school Wednesday and could face criminal charges, Matheson said.

A Hazen parent who called the Renton Reporter Wednesday said her child had heard rumors online Tuesday night about the threat.

The school notified Hazen staff why additional security was on the campus. An email was sent home to parents to assure them the school was safe but the district had to take the situation seriously, Matheson said.

Principal Kate O’Brien addressed students via intercom about the seriousness of making a threat using social media and the consequences for doing so.