Seattle-area high schools hit with threats, high school cancels classes

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Two Seattle-area high schools were evacuated on Friday after receiving security threats, and another high school in Washington state heightened its security after a threatening message was scrawled on a bathroom wall. Interlake High School in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue was put on lockdown and classroom doors were locked with students inside, the Bellevue School District said in a statement on its website. Later, Interlake canceled classes for the day, it said, adding all students and staff were safe. "At this time the District and the Bellevue Police Department have made the decision to close Interlake High for the remainder of the school day and to release students," the district said. Bellevue Police said on Twitter they were investigating "Facebook rumors of a shooting" at the school but said the department had received no emergency calls of shots fired. They also said in a tweet police were investigating "unsubstantiated information about an anonymous threat" but added "No threat has been carried out at the school." In Des Moines, a city south of Seattle, Mount Rainier High school students were evacuated to nearby schools on Friday morning after the school received a bomb threat, an official with the Highline School District said. She said all students were so far safe. Security was also heightened at Rogers High School in Puyallup, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Seattle, after a threatening message was scrawled on a bathroom wall, school officials said in a statement. The threat, discovered Thursday, was against Rogers High School in general, school officials said, adding they called in extra security as a precaution, although they felt the campus was generally safe. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said an investigation was ongoing but gave no further details. Last October, a popular 15-year-old opened fire on a cafeteria gathering of his cousins and three close friends at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, an hour's drive north of Seattle, fatally shooting four teenagers before taking his own life. Further threats made against the school in January were later determined to be unfounded. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson and Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Lisa Lambert and James Dalgleish)