COVINGTON, Wash. — King County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a teenager at Kentwood High School for having a gun on Friday afternoon. The incident caused the school to go into lockdown for 30 minutes, according to the district and a text message conversation that a parent shared with KIRO 7 News.
Neva Demmitt says she texted her daughter as soon as she saw the lockdown text to make sure she was okay.
“It’s sad. It’s extremely sad that our youth are getting ahold of weapons like this, whether it’s a gun or a knife or anything,” Demmitt said.
The school locked down at 11:25 a.m. At 11:55 a.m., the district sent a text message and email alert to parents that the lockdown was lifted, but did not release information as to why. Meanwhile, students were sharing screenshots of a police scanner app that showed the situation involved a firearm. Demmitt’s daughter sent her that screenshot, the first clue she had of what was happening.
“My daughter said that she wasn’t scared when the lockdown happened, but she’s scared to go to school and that’s the sad part,” Demmitt said.
As of Friday afternoon, Kent School District still had not disclosed that a gun was found on campus. That information was shared by the King County Sheriff’s Office.
KIRO 7 called more than a dozen times to try to ask questions about the district’s communication policy. After those calls, the school’s principal sent a lengthy note to parents at 2:55 p.m. saying the lockdown was “due to a report of a weapon on campus,” not disclosing the weapon was a firearm.
“I refuse to normalize what happened today. I continue to sincerely appreciate your care, concern, patience, and partnership as we navigate difficult situations together,” read part of the letter from Samantha Ketover, Kentwood’s principal.
KIRO 7 News asked Kent School District its policy on these matters.
“Any further details are released by the local law enforcement agency conducting the investigation, as deemed appropriate,” the district’s unnamed communication team said in an email.
Law enforcement agencies do not directly contact school district parents when incidents happen, as the school district does.
Demmitt says she wishes for more communication from the district, but appreciates how Kentwood’s staff handles these situations.
“They are swift when it comes to what they are doing,” Demmitt said, “I do wish [the district] would release more information, even if it’s just small stuff about maybe a weapon was involved or was seen but there are no injuries, not threats. Things like that would be nice to know that there’s not a threat to any of our kids.”
Demmitt says her daughter is afraid to go to school due to the number of lockdowns that occur at Kentwood. She points to several previous lockdowns, including at least one other that included an undisclosed weapon. KIRO 7 News tried to confirm the details of those previous incidents, but the district did not reply.
“It’s important as parents to teach our kids that anything can happen at any point at any time,” Demmitt said of how she tries to prepare her kids, “be aware of your surroundings and try not to be scared.”
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