Two Edmonds students expelled, arrested for racially-charged threats
Dec 15, 2015, 3:35 PM | Updated: 4:46 pm
Two students at Edmonds-Woodway High School were expelled Tuesday after it was discovered they were making threats to fellow students. (Edmonds School District)
(Edmonds School District)
Two students at Edmonds-Woodway High School were expelled Tuesday, and arrested, after it was discovered they were making online threats against African-American students and the rest of their school.
A fellow student reported to the school district on Dec. 7 that two other students, 15 and 16 years old, were running an online chat room where they were making threats.
“They were expelled immediately on an emergency expulsion the day that it was brought to the school’s attention,” said Sergeant Shane Hawley with the Edmonds Police Department.
“They specifically mentioned lynching of students and also made a little more generic reference to killing students at the high school,” Hawley said.
An investigation into the matter by Edmonds police found that the two teen suspects allegedly made racially-charged threats to African-American students at their school. The threats included descriptions of how they would kill black students, and included the word “lynching.”
The students further allegedly made threats to the school as a whole, reportedly writing that they wanted to put the school on lockdown and have “dead bodies” all over the campus, according to the Edmonds Police Department.
Both teen suspects were interviewed by police and reportedly said they didn’t mean what they said online, and wrote their comments in jest.
“We went ahead and interviewed them. They brought up that this was really just a joke and was just meant to be funny,” Hawley said. “We take these matters very seriously because of the times and with shootings around the country. We aren’t going to take it as teenagers trying to be funny, or as a joke. We take it at face value.”
The two suspects have been charged with malicious harassment and have been booked into the Denny Youth Center. Edmonds police still have an investigation into the matter, but wanted to get information out to the public to head off any rumors that could arise.
The prosecutor will next determine if the two teenagers will face the charges, remain in custody, or be released.
