Chaska High classes canceled after lockdown

January 9, 2013 at 5:00AM
Chaska High School was in lockdown mode with police cars blocking all entrances. As the students were being released and the buses were leaving the school this Chaska police officer was monitoring the situation while carrying an assault rifle.
Chaska High School was in lockdown mode with police cars blocking all entrances. As the students were being released and the buses were leaving the school this Chaska police officer was monitoring the situation while carrying an assault rifle. (Dml - Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Classes at Chaska High School were canceled Tuesday after the school was locked down in the morning because of a threat.

"CHS received a threat this morning. We have taken it seriously and are now working with police," the school said.

Freshman Bailey Van Eyll said she and others in the school of about 1,250 students were immediately ushered into a computer lab when they got to school.

Van Eyll and her classmates sat silently on the floor in the dark for three hours, texting updates to their parents until getting the OK to leave.

"We were all scared," she said. "I don't really know what happened."

Police guarded both entrances to the school during the lockdown.

A police sweep of the high school and parking lot came up empty, School District spokesman Brett Johnson said.

Johnson declined to reveal details of the threat, adding, "We're concerned about copycat things."

PAUL WALSH AND Kelly Smith

Police stood guard Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2012, at the entrance to a locked-down Chaska High School.
Police stood guard Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2012, at the entrance to a locked-down Chaska High School. (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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Paul Walsh

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Paul Walsh is a general assignment reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. He wants your news tips, especially in and near Minnesota.

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Kelly Smith

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Kelly Smith is a news editor, supervising a team of reporters covering Minnesota social services, transportation issues and higher education. She previously worked as a news reporter for 16 years.

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