In September, Camas High School (CHS) had two possible threats of large-scale violence that were eventually deemed noncredible. School was not canceled, prompting fear from some students over how CHS analyzes threats to staff and students. 

On Sept. 13th and Sept. 20th, CHS released two emails to the district going over the threats, social media posts reported by parents that seemed to insinuate violence, and assuring students and staff that the threats were quickly determined to be noncredible. 

CHS Safety Director Owen Sanford believes that concerned parents and students exaggerated and misinterpreted the threats.

“For example, there was some kind of mention of a bomb [on a social media post], and zero mention of Camas School District, Camas, Washington, Camas High School…a student or parent let us know, and then we talked to the student that heard the threat, and the student they heard it from, and that student heard it from this student, and then we just followed that trail,” Sanford said.

“Police got involved too; they visited some homes…it turned out that the threat originated from Oregon and the student didn’t even live in Washington,” Sanford said.

The “threats” were vague social media posts or references in online comments that did not mention CHS. Through rumors, the alleged threats were blown out of proportion and a false connection was made between the violent social media posts and CHS’s homecoming dance.

“General connections were made to Camas High School where there was no evidence of [a direct threat],” Sanford said.

When the admin team is notified of a potential threat to CHS, they enter a step-by-step process to determine its validity.

“We talk as an admin team, we notify police, and we make sure the district office is also notified…as a team we talk about what kind of evidence exists, is there any mention specifically of Camas, Camas High School, can we get screenshots,” Sanford said.

This evidence is provided to the police, who examine it and attempt to find the origins of the threat and determine if it is a legitimate threat. In most cases, it is usually discovered that there is no mention of Camas and no serious threat. The school does have a plan for a worst-case scenario, however.

 “At a certain point if it could be proven that there was a possibility of an immediate threat, of an imminent threat to students or staff…we always want to err on the side of caution,” Sanford said.

The district must also remain vigilant for pranks and fake threats to disrupt school.

“We know that a part of the objective for posts and pranks like this is to get school canceled…but we would never not take things seriously and take all threats very seriously,” Sanford said. 

Some students still feel uncomfortable about the existence of such threats and the school’s response to them.

“I think it’s kind of crazy that we even live in a world where that [threats of violence to schools] is even a thing we have to worry about,” CHS senior Royce Owens said.

“I think school should be shut down until they absolutely know that [the threats] are noncredible, there shouldn’t be a situation where they go through the day and find out it was noncredible,” Owens said.

CHS senior Emma Gessler thought similarly. 

“I think that until you can verify immediately that the threats aren’t credible, you should shut down at least momentarily,” Gessler said.

“I don’t really feel safe with our current system,” Gessler said and then referenced an incident that took place in the 2023-2024 school year where a false schoolwide lockdown drill was initiated and many were unaware of the necessary safety precautions (CHS took steps to ensure compliance with school guidelines regarding threats and ensure a false alarm would not occur again).

CHS does not often receive threats, and administrators are firm that threats are taken seriously and student and teacher safety are ensured at all times. Sanford claimed that an important part of preventing panic and false alarms is to be careful when seeing information online.

“It’s really important to emphasize being critical of information people see online…people have to think about what they’re seeing and be careful in how they talk about what they’re seeing,” Sanford said. 

Since the noncredible alleged threats in September, CHS has not seen any more threats of violence, and administrators remain vigilant towards any future ones.