Threat against Bend High draws widespread fear as investigation continues

Published 5:15 pm Friday, February 10, 2023

Bend Police detectives and the FBI have determined that a threat of violence against Bend High School on Thursday was made by a caller outside the United States.

Bend Police spokeswoman Sheila Miller said police had not recovered any weapons or made any arrests as of Friday afternoon. She also couldn’t say which country the call originated from, nor if law enforcement agencies have any suspects.

The threat — in which a man said he was in the high school parking lot with weapons and was going to enter the school — did not result in any actual violence but prompted a massive and swift police response.

It also prompted widespread fears across a city still reeling from a shooting at a Bend Safeway in August, when a gunman opened fire on dozens of shoppers with an AR-15-style rifle, killing two people and then himself. Law enforcement officials believe the gunman also wrote an online post describing plans to attack Mountain View High School in Bend.

“These incidents are scary,” Miller said Friday. “It’s scary to put your kid back on the bus or take your kid to school … It’s hard to let your kids out of your sight when something like that happens.”

On Friday, police who were not responding to other emergencies swung by local schools, in part to quell those fears, Miller said. “We just want people to know we’re out and about,” she said.

In an email to parents Thursday evening, Bend High School Principal Christopher Reese said: “For some students and staff this incident may have been upsetting. School counselors and a student support room will be available Friday for those who want to process today’s events.”

Reese said events, including a basketball game on Friday night, would continue as usual.

“There’s a bit of uneasiness,” Bend-La Pine Schools spokesman Scott Maben said, after visiting the high school Friday. He said classes were continuing as usual and the school appeared well-attended, but added: “It’s amazing how much chaos and disruption you can cause with a phone call from outside the country.”

While these calls will always prompt an immediate police response to stop any possible threat, law enforcement officials say they can traumatize a community and waste law enforcement resources. Police responding to a faulty threat like Thursday’s will not respond to other emergencies happening at the same time until the threat is handled, officials said.

“It’s super frustrating to have calls like this being nothing,” Miller said. “I’m thankful it’s nothing. But it is frustrating.”

Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels said threats like this are “extremely dangerous, and our office takes it very seriously.”

Police who show up to schools under the assumption of an active threat are on “high-alert,” prepared to act immediately to stop a threat. That tension can create a “high potential” for a mistake by anyone involved, Gunnels said.

Police “could confront somebody; they could react in a poor way, and things could get out of hand,” Gunnels said. “You’re introducing danger to a situation that had none,” he added.

Law enforcement officials have come to know these incidents as “swatting,” or when someone attempts to instigate a high-risk police response — often from a SWAT team — to a location with no actual threat, Gunnels said.

A 2017 case that stemmed from a swatting prank in Wichita, Kansas, started from a dispute over a video game and ended with officers shooting a man. An Ohio gamer in that incident pleaded guilty to conspiring to set up hoax calls to Wichita police, according to a news release from the United States Department of Justice.

Thursday was one of several false threats Central Oregon schools have seen in recent years.

In 2019, a 14-year-old student in Sunriver was cited for disorderly conduct after allegedly making a false report to the school administration that another student threatened violence at the school involving a gun.

In February 2022, the FBI and local law enforcement investigated a threat against Powell Butte Community Charter School in Crook County that prompted school administrators to secure the school and then cancel classes. Police arrested a seventh-grade boy at the charter school after reportedly linking him to the threats against staff and students.

In May 2022, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man who made a “vague threat” to a school in Sisters. During that incident, the Sisters School District placed its schools in “secure status” for several hours. Charles Matthew Schmiel faces charges of disorderly conduct, according to court records. His case is ongoing in the Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Gunnels said his office sees a handful of these cases each year. Often, the defendant faces a charge of first-degree disorderly conduct. A conviction comes with up to a year in jail. To him, this penalty is insufficient.

“This kind of a crime should be a more serious offense in terms of potential penalty because of the extreme risk involved and the potential stress of that conduct,” he said.

Bend City Councilor Anthony Broadman described the threat as “disruptive” and “scary.” On Thursday, he picked his daughter up early from school at Bend High School after police had cleared the scene. Later, he said they discussed what had happened.

“It’s important to talk through it, and it’s OK to be afraid,” he said. “It’s the reality of my kid’s generation.”