Hundreds of kids stayed home after a gang of masked intruders ran wild at a Washington State high school this week, terrorizing and attacking students in an incident that drew an angry reaction from some parents.
The incident took place at Auburn Riverside High School in King County on Monday when a half dozen teens wearing hoodies were able to gain entry to the building after a student let them in through a side door and proceeded to wreak havoc, running through the halls and physically assaulting five students.
A total of 532 students were absent from class on Tuesday, the Auburn School District told Fox News Digital.
“We had an incident on Monday that has been widely publicized that has contributed to the number of students absent at that school,” said a district spokesperson.
One student’s mom, Brandy Garber said that she kept her daughter home the following day after the invasion of the school. “She said everybody started running. They said people came in and were masked and were pushing people out of the way.”
“She’s scared. Then on the other side of it, she wants to go to school because she feels like her grades are dropping with me keeping her out. But as a parent, what do you do?” Garber told Seattle news outlet KIRO.
“I would definitely pull her if another incident happens like this. Especially if they can’t tell us if these people have been caught,” she added.
Auburn District Superintendent Dr. Alan Spicciati said that the incident was linked to “back-to-back” fights on Friday and that it was related to “conflicts in the community,” KOMO News reported. “It’s definitely something that’s a concern of ours, and I want to be really transparent. We can not have gangs in our schools, full stop.”
(Video: YouTube/KOMO)
“I was upset to hear about this, honestly. I was mad,” Spicciati said, assuring parents that their kids are safe. “We hire three police officers as school resource officers. We’ve doubled our own school security staff at high schools,” KIRO reported.
“We have a lot of students and families upset about this. I’m upset. And we are going to take some very serious action because when you make choices, there is accountability,” he added.
In a letter to Riverside High School families, Principal Janalyn McKeehan explained what had happened at school that day.
“As you are aware, all outside doors of the school are locked during the school day. At about 1:00 p.m., we had six individuals, who were wearing masks, be let into the school through a side door by a student. This student thought they were supposed to be on campus, so the student opened the door. Unfortunately, these six individuals were not supposed to be on campus,” the letter explained.
“The individuals began running down the hall randomly hitting students. When quickly confronted by school administrators, they ran outside. I made the decision, after discussion with district administration and security, to put the school in a ‘secure and teach’ mode from 1:00 p.m. until the end of the school day,” McKeehan said.
According to KIRO, “Auburn police said no arrests have been made and if anyone knows anything about these students, they are urged to give police a call.”
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.