SEATTLE — A Seattle 18-year-old was charged with felony harassment and felony cyber harassment after allegedly threatening hurt students at Sammamish High School.
On Friday, Sammamish High School went into a lockout because of alleged messages sent by Ingraham High School Student Isaiah Foster.
Probable cause documents detail an exchange through social media where Foster told a Sammamish student he was planning on bringing guns to the school. He said in one message, "I hope u know screenshots won't save u also locking down the school won't either." Foster messaged another student telling them to leave the school for the day.
"It's very clear that this creates a lot of anxiety and raw emotional responses from kids because they recognize they're the target of this violence," said father Grant DeBruin. His daughter is a junior at Sammamish.
Grant and other parents off-camera expressed their concern that a mass shooting would be carried out following Friday's lockout.
This wasn't the first time Foster mentioned wanting to commit a school shooting at Sammamish. In late November, a doctor reported Foster wanted to inflict harm to students at Sammamish. An extreme risk protection order was put into place. Foster and his parents surrendered their firearms.
Seattle police arrested Foster, who has been charged with Felony Harassment and Felony Cyber Harassment and was held on a $1 million bond.
"The basis of our argument was in this case that we believe there was a serious danger to his community should he be released," said Casey McNerthney with the prosecutor's office.
In a statement, the Bellevue School District said it will continue to monitor the situation and work in partnership with the Bellevue police to conduct threat assessments and coordinate and implement safety protocols as the investigation continues.
Foster's arraignment is on December 22 which gives parents like DeBruin some relief.
"If for whatever reason he's released, we'll make the call about whether or not our daughter attends school in person," he said.