Estacada schools look to bolster safety after recent incident

Estacada Schools were locked into a secure mode recently as a potential danger was reported, law enforcement eventually determined there was no threat, but the district superintendent said school administrators are studying the incident for ways to improve student safety.

“We have some learning opportunities internally of how we can improve the safety of our students,” Superintendent Ryan Carpenter said in a public social media forum on May 6.

Carpenter shared details about the April 25 incident in which a student opened a locked door for group of young people who then entered the gym at Estacada High School. He said the group shot some baskets and were hanging out.

Carpenter said the “unauthorized visitors” — four were not from Estacada, two were not students in the Estacada School District and two were Estacada students — were in the gym for seven minutes before a teacher discovered them and asked them to leave. The group left without incident.

The high school baseball team, waiting for a bus to take them to a game, reported that one of the unauthorized visitors, as they were leaving the campus, said they had a gun and a knife. Nobody saw any weapons.

The ballplayers reported the conversation and the district response was to immediately put all schools into a “secure circumstance” which meant all the exterior doors were locked in the schools.

Elementary students were not allowed to leave their schools, even though the school day was over for them. All students were released when it was determined there was no threat.

Carpenter said 26 police cars and two drones were immediately sent to Estacada to search for the group of unauthorized visitors.

The group eventually was found at Clackamas Town Center and no weapons were found.

“Nothing illegal actually happened,” Carpenter said, and the “unauthorized visitors” did not make any specific threats.

But he added that the safety precautions were taken “out of an abundance of caution.”

Now the district is reviewing safety protocols and working on ways to make the schools safer.

“We educate students over and over and over again to not to open the doors for anybody,” he said.

But, he said, there are opportunities for the district to tighten protocols to keep students even safer.