On Friday, June 6th, information was received by the Crescent City Police Department regarding the possibility of armed juveniles allegedly intending to confront two students over an off-campus fight at Crescent Elk Middle School.
The School Resource Officer and Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin were on scene within a minute of receiving the information, immediately placing the school on lock-down, per safety protocol.
Combined efforts and cooperation of the Del Norte County Probation Department, Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, and Yurok Tribal Police procedures went into place to not only provide security for the students inside the school, but to also determine the validity of the threat.
During this time, officers were also detailed to the Beach Front Park area to stand watch over an off-site graduation picnic for students from Crescent Elk.
Working with Administration staff, the threat was determined to be not as originally reported. Yurok Tribal Police Officers were able to locate and detain the two juveniles who were involved in the off-site altercation and were able to determine that there was no mention of a firearm, or any intention of coming to the school at all.
The lockdown was lifted, and Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin stayed on campus to speak with parents directly as they were picking up their children.
“There was never a person on any campus with a gun,” Chief Griffin said, “and there were no shots fired, or any other incident that happened at the school or any other school in Crescent City. There were social media posts and rumors about these issues, that were not true and rumors only. During an incident like this, especially with recent events,” he continued, “a lot of information is going to be pushed out onto social media prior to it being vetted for accuracy. All of law enforcement in Crescent City and Del Norte County take the safety of your children with utmost importance. If there are any questions about our response, training, or protocol for these incidents, please contact me and I will answer your questions.”
