Did You Know...

03-20-08 As many of you already know or may find out by reading the Crime Blotter, we had a very serious incident on March 6th on the Vernonia School campus. Around 12:00pm or a little after something exploded in a trash can by the rear door of the Vernonia Middle School building. The explosion was described by witnesses as being extremely loud (making their ears ring) and subsequently started a small fire in the trash can which was extinguished by school staff. Vernonia Police and Vernonia Fire personnel soon responded to the scene. I was in Jansen Beach at a leadership seminar but immediately returned to Vernonia given the seriousness nature of the incident. The students and staff were evacuated from the Middle School and Washington Grade School was placed in "lock down". Both of these decisions were made to ensure the safety of our students and staff especially since I have two students myself at the school. As the incident progressed and we began to get bits and pieces of information we could neither confirm nor deny if there were any other devices and we were not exactly sure who the suspect(s) were. The VPD only had two officers on-duty so additional resources were requested and given by surrounding agencies to aid in our response. As clarification was made on the device and it was determined to be a "pipe bomb" the Portland Bomb Squad and Bomb K9's were requested. Only after we were certain we had the suspects in custody and were sure there were no other devices did we release the building back to the school and the students from lock-down. Thank you to the parents and staff for their tremendous patience and believe me though I was handling the incident at the Chief of Police I had my own children's safety in the back of my mind. As with any event a certain amount of information starts circulating that is not totally factual or has been taken out of context. The VPD and the Vernonia Fire Department will always have safety as a paramount especially during incidents involving children and the school district. Once we take appropriate measures to secure that safety we then must re-focus on identification of those responsible given the information we have at hand. Many incidents have occurred across the country that has taught us to take the necessary actions to ensure preservation of life and proper investigation of criminal acts. After speaking to the bomb technicians about the device and being told that we were extremely lucky it was not constructed of a different material or there could have been many casualties, I was reassured we responded appropriately. If given similar circumstances again I will respond in a similar fashion. Even if my two children were not at the school, my approach is that ALL students at the school are MY children and I will do whatever I need to do to keep them safe and I know Dr. Cox shares these sentiments. I invite anyone who has questions about our response or about any topic to contact me at the station or email me at chief@vernonia-or.gov. I can't discuss specifics of the case but I will do my best to clarify information or concerns.