DIETRICH, Idaho – Dietrich’s K-12 school was locked down Wednesday afternoon, and students were eventually bussed to another location, after the school received a number of threatening calls, and a person entered the school despite a teacher’s pleas not to.
The threats came on the same day that the parents of a student announced their $10 million lawsuit against the Dietrich School District, accusing the district of failing to protect their son from escalating racially-based harassment and assaults that culminated in the teen being brutally raped with a coat hanger by fellow members of the football team.
The assaults allegedly involved the victim, who is black, and three attackers, who are white.
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After the story broke, the school received more than 150 calls and emails Wednesday, according to Shoshone Chief of Police Marsall Emerson, who is among the law enforcement officers from neighboring communities in town to help out with the situation.
Emerson said because of the threatening nature of the calls, the school was placed on high alert. At about 2 p.m., a person was seen walking into the school through a side door. That person, who is described as an African-American female, reportedly ignored a teacher who told her not to enter the school through that door. That’s when the school went into lockdown, Emerson said.
Because they considered the situation to be a credible threat, law enforcement agencies from surrounding counties and towns were called to the school, where they conducted a sweep of the building. Emerson said the female was found later a Dietrich home.
The mother of the alleged victim in the rape case told KTVB Wednesday afternoon that the person who entered the school was her daughter, the victim’s sister. She said the girl had heard that her father, who is a teacher at the school, was upset over the threats and wanted to go to the school to console him. The girl was not arrested and does not face any charges, the mother said.
Speaking of the tension in the community since the family filed the lawsuit, the woman said the town is divided.
“There are some really nice people here, and a lot of people who are really angry,” she said. When I went to pick up my kids, I got a lot of dirty looks.”
