SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Classes at Central Valley High School were canceled on Friday after a threatening note was found on a bathroom wall.
Central Valley High School sent an alert just after 8:15 a.m. on Friday that said the school was on lockdown due to a "possible threat." A little over an hour later, the school announced that students were being evacuated and sent home.
The school also canceled after-school activities on Friday night.
Students were told to leave their backpacks on campus and some students told KREM 2 they were searched.
The high school will open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday for students to pick up personal belongings.
Spokane County Sheriff's Cpl. Mark Gregory provided an update on Friday morning and said the threat was general and not directed at a specific person.
Gregory the sheriff's office was not releasing the nature of the threat at this time, but the person responsible could face felony charges.
"If we can determine who did that [wrote the threat], it is a criminal matter. They will be prosecuted," he said. "This is not a joke."
There was a rumor of a bomb in the school, but a School Resource Officer checked the building and did not find any other threats, Gregory said. He said he does not have knowledge of a weapon found on school grounds.
Local law enforcement are working the school district to investigate the threat, Gregory said.
East Valley High School also found a threat written in a bathroom on Friday. The district said it still plans to open school on Monday.
Students with cars leave school, others headed to Eastpoint Church
School leaders and law enforcement released students in small groups without their backpacks on Friday morning following the threat.
The Central Valley School District said students who drove to school were escorted to their cars and able to leave campus. Parents were asked to pick up all other students at the nearby Eastpoint Church.
KREM's Brandon Jones reported that parents were lined up waiting to sign their kids out of school just before 10:30 a.m.
The last time school district officials bused kids off campus was for a bomb threat at University High School four years ago, according to Central Valley School District spokesperson Marla Nunberg.
Nunberg said there are more than 2,000 students at the school. No one was hurt.