Internet threat prompts school lockdown

    All Washington schools were put into a lockdown Friday afternoon following a threat to ?Washington High School in Iowa? posted on Facebook. The schools were placed in the lockdown shortly before 2 p.m. and roughly a half hour later the lockdown was canceled. During that time, all the interior and exterior doors of the schools were locked and no one was allowed to enter the buildings. The schools that were locked down were the high school, junior high, Stewart Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, St. James Elementary and the A.S.S.U.R.E. Center.

    Washington Police Chief Greg Goodman said the police department received a call from the Waterloo Police Department about a threatening message on Facebook. The Waterloo police had been informed that someone posted a message on Facebook indicating that they had a gun and were headed to ?Washington High School in Iowa.?

    Goodman said that at the time the Washington Police received the information from Waterloo, they did not know which ?Washington High School? in the state was being referred to. He said there are four schools named ?Washington? in Iowa, including one in Cedar Rapids. He remarked that the Washington police did not want to take any risks and so advised all the schools in town to go into a lockdown.

    After all the schools went into a lockdown, Goodman received information that the ?Washington High School? in Washington, Iowa, could be ruled out as the school referenced in the Facebook message. The police reported to the schools that they could unlock the interior doors but recommended that they keep the exterior doors locked until classes dismissed for the day. The police had patrol cars driving around all the schools during the lockdown.  

For more, see our March 8 print edition.