Threat Closes Schools

DAYTON - Schools here started two hours late Mon- day morning after a threatening note was discovered on the entrance to the high school by a custodian at about 6:30 a.m. The hand- written note is reported to have threatened harm to the schools and its students if the schools held classes this week.

According to Columbia County Sheriff's Of- fice spokesperson Dian Ver Valen, sheriff's deputies, local fire fighters and other responders secured district buildings by 10 a.m. All streets with access to the schools were blocked during that period. Classes began at 10:15.

Ver Valen said that depu- ties found no suspicious items, but that a Washington State Patrol bomb squad had been alerted, and was ready to respond if needed.

This incident followed a previous incident on No- vember 6, in which a swas- tika was burned onto the lawn near Dayton Elemen- tary School. Ver Valen said the Sheriff's Office has no reason to believe the two are related.