Deputies: Threat to West Ottawa High School ‘unfounded’
PARK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Ottawa County sheriff’s deputies were called to West Ottawa High School near Holland Friday morning after the school received a threatening phone call.
“We believe that it’s an unfounded threat at this point,” Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jake Sparks said. “Obviously around April 20, fortunately, historically, there’s been violence and threats of violence on that date. Nevertheless, we take every situation seriously.”
The sheriff’s office said other districts received similar calls Friday morning. Saturday also marks 25 years since the deadly mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.
The call came into West Ottawa High School on Butternut Drive south of Quincy Street in Park Township around 9:35 a.m., the sheriff’s office said. Deputies say the “unknown caller threatened violence.”
“The caller, it was an anonymous caller, made some threats of violence at the school that were supposedly going to take place this morning,” Sparks told reporters.
The school resource officer was at the building and spoke to the caller, Sparks said.
Deputies went to West Ottawa school buildings “to make sure that nothing happened,” Sparks said, and several schools sheltered in place.
West Ottawa was scheduled for a half day. Authorities first organized dismissing students from the north side of the school, followed by the south side.
Sparks said authorities were working to find out who made the call. He said that person could face felony charges.
He said threatening calls and and social media posts are becoming more common. He said the sheriff’s office runs risk assessments to threats and works closely with school districts to respond and investigate.
“Whether it’s a prank or a swatting-type situation or whatever’s going on, we respond to everything the same. We respond to it as if it’s real, as if it’s an emergency. We had units here very, very quickly,” he said. “And the school resource officers, I can’t say enough about that program. … That’s an amazing deterrent.”
He also praised school staff for their response.
Sparks had said a threatening call was also made to a school in Holland, but Holland Public Schools said that it did not receive any such calls. Holland Middle School was placed on “‘Secure Level’ due to its proximity to a school that did receive a threat,” the school said, and an extra city police officer was around. Secure level was lifted within a few hours after the school got the all-clear form police.
Anyone with information about the threat to West Ottawa is asked to call the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office at 616.738.4000 or Silent Observer at 877.887.4536.
*Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the day on which the 25-year anniversary of Columbine falls. It is Saturday. We regret the error, which has been fixed.
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