A bomb threat on Monday, May 23, led to the evacuation of students at Sunset Elementary School in Airway Heights.
According to Airway Heights Police Department’s Sgt. Robert Swan, police were notified about the bomb threat at approximately 12:20 p.m. Swan said the person who received the threat over the phone said the caller “sounded like a robo-caller,” which is an automated telephone call that delivers a recorded message.
Airway Heights police converged at the school and helped evacuate the students to safety, relocating them to a nearby church, then blocked the following streets around the school: 12th and Lawson, Eighth and Lawson, 12th and King and Eighth and King.
Kalispel Tribal Police, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Airway Heights Fire Department and Fairchild Air Force Base also responded to the incident.
“Fairchild brought a couple of bomb-sniffing dogs, which was nice,” Swan said.
The scene was cleared at approximately 2:40 p.m. and students were allowed back in the building after officers found no sign of a bomb.
Sunset Elementary was not the only school to receive bomb threats on Monday. According to local and national media sources there were bomb threats made by automated calls to schools in Colorado, Utah, Delaware, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
Briefing City Council members at their bi-weekly study session Monday night, Airway Heights City Manager Albert Tripp said that while the Sunset students were sequestered at the church, the local Yoke’s Fresh Market store supplied them with fruit to help ease the time.
Cheney Free Press editor John McCallum contributed to this report.
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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