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The on-edge tensions communities nationwide are experiencing became a crisis among La Conner High School students last Thursday and continued Monday. On June 2, a 15 year old student was arrested on three counts of felony harassment threats to kill and a count of threats to bomb or injure property, Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Chad Clark stated in a press release.

A second student was taken into custody the afternoon of June 6 at the high school when sheriff’s deputies developed probable cause for felony harassment/threats to kill. Both students were held at the Skagit County Juvenile Detention Center.

La Conner School Superintendent Will Nelson informed the community of the first student’s release from detention Monday morning, writing “this student has been excluded from school and is not expected back on campus this school year.”

The Skagit County prosecuting attorney and the courts will determine the second juvenile’s release date.

Multiple 911 calls Thursday, the first at 7:06 a.m., were made after a post on Facebook mentioned a student threatened to shoot students at the high school. The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office and the Swinomish Police Department jointly responded to La Conner High School

Sheriff’s Office staff were on campus at 7:55 a.m. The school district’s first communication, marked urgent, was sent to the Swinomish and La Conner communities at 9:10 a.m. saying a safety threat was being investigated.

At 1:13 p.m. Nelson updated wthe La Conner and Swinomish communities while the investigation was in progress, reporting there was no safety threat at the schools, that the student was not at school. The schools had not been in a lockdown, he wrote, correcting an erroneous Skagit Breaking post. Updates would continue to be made he said.

The student was arrested at their residence about 3:30 p.m., Tobin Meyer, chief criminal deputy, told the Weekly News.

Meyer told the press that detectives interviewed students and school staff as part of their investigation, establishing probable cause leading to the arrest. While detectives heard that specific threats had been made by the student, they confirmed there was not an immediate threat to students and staff.

Nelson informed the community that a juvenile was on an investigative hold for harassment charges with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office at 8:22 p.m. Thursday and posted the message on the district’s Facebook page. He brought up “the negative impacts of bullying and the positive impacts of kindness.” His messages since have stressed that everyone needs “to consider what part we play in making our communities stronger, our partnerships and relationships stronger.” He has repeatedly emphasized “kindness is the path to stronger communities, stronger feelings of belonging and stronger mutual support.”

Thursday afternoon the car parades to celebrate seniors went on as planned. Nelson said that was a joint decision made with law enforcement. The Swinomish Police Department, La Conner Fire Department and Skagit County Sheriff’s Office participated, as they have traditionally.

At a school assembly for grades 9-11 Tuesday, Nelson asked the students if they had witnessed someone getting physically or emotionally hurt from another student at La Conner Schools and had students raise their hands if they had seen others “use their cellphones in hurtful ways.” He then told them to look around at the many raised hands. “This is where we are as a community,” he said.

Nelson emphasized the hurt students were doing to their classmates and told them “it is our responsibility to make sure that each one of our classmates feels safe and feels like they belong here.”

He told them “We have work to do standing up for each other. We can do better, I know we can, I believe we can and I hope you believe we can too.”

The last thought he shared was “I love every one of you here, I care about every one of you here,” ending “Remember - Be Kind-Be Brave!”

School officials have addressed bullying from early in the school year, with school board member J.J. Wilbur noting at their Oct. 25 meeting the need to assure all students are respected and not subject to harassment.

Wilbur and Superintendent Will Nelson stressed then that local action is needed to address a national trend, which has seen an uptick in bullying in U.S. schools, with students struggling to re-engage with peer groups after having undergone remote learning for extended periods since COVID-19 closed schools in 2020.

“We want to be proactive,” Wilbur said then. “If we work on it as a community, we’ll get better results.”

Nelson agreed.

“You’re right on,” Nelson responded. “This is something we need to do.” He later announced he would meet with middle school students to further address the bullying issue.

Board member Lynette Cram followed up, asking that action be taken to prevent cyberbullying by reviewing for revision the district’s student cell phone use policy.

La Conner Schools has launched a Be Kind-Be Brave initiative and prioritized social-emotional learning and development of student coping skills.

“It’s about getting past what’s triggering the behavior,” Nelson told board members at their May 23 session, when outlining the need for additional dialogue and a continued emphasis upon curbing campus bullying.

Parents, grandparents and community members were not kind in their assessments and criticisms. While many social media posts from Thursday were taken down in the following days and most adults did not speak on the record, Courtney Moore did. A parent of 13 year seventh grade twins, Moore told the Weekly News that mothers, and she, were “raising a ruckus. I was really upset. Both of my boys were traumatized by what happened.” They did not go to school Friday, out of fear, she said.

Many tribal students stayed home Friday as well, an unnamed school employee said.

“There is racial strife in the school; no one in the school condones it. Will (Nelson) wants to address it as an issue. Something is happening at the student level,” a native community member told the Weekly News.”

He called for, as did Moore, bringing in the Skagit County health department and mental health professionals and providing trauma counseling.

“The children, it is all about our children’s mental health. They are being traumatized by the news,” Moore said.