SPOKANE, Wash. — Numerous students fled Lewis and Clark High School during Friday’s active shooter hoax investigation and ended up finding solace at a nearby business.
“All the sudden we saw some kids running up the hill with no jackets, no backpacks, just looked terrified,” said Noah Orosco. He works at Jacob’s Java which is just a block away from the high school.
Dozens of the students running away ended up in their parking lot and waited to reunite with their families.
“We had several parents, probably 20 to 30 kids come into this one spot,” he added. ” I couldn’t hear anything, but you can see from the looks on their faces, they were very emotional and the parents were very happy and satisfied they were here.”
The kids were away from the swarms of officers and safe with their families in a parking lot transformed into a safe haven.
“Right now, I feel relieved that I am going home. It’s very nice to be out,” said Finnegan Dorndonnelly, a student at Lewis and Clark. “There’s still police presence there, so it’s still a bit nerve-wracking with police walking around. They still have some guns. It’s been nerve-wracking, but I’m glad to be going home.”
“Now that I know it was fake, and I’m safe, I am fine now,” said Tate Thatcher, another student.
Both these students didn’t want to finish out the school day on Friday. They’re thankful the shooting call was just a hoax but still in shock.
“It’s sad to see,” Thatcher added. “You have to be sick to make that kind of prank.”
“It’s sickening really. I just can’t imagine what’s going through someone’s head when they do this,” Dorndonnelly said. “I mean, so many people are in distress. I can’t imagine what they were thinking when they did that.”
All the students affected have a lot to process and so do the Jacob’s Java employees who are thankful the coffee stand was open, but sad for students living in this reality.
“We always have the high school kids here. We always have since forever,” Orosco said. “We’ve always told them, hey if you need anything, we’re always right here because the world we live in today is a crazy crazy place, and I couldn’t imagine being one of those kids.”
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