School threat prompts lockdown

TRAPPER CREEK -- Classroom doors at Trapper Creek School were locked Tuesday after a disgruntled parent threatened to return with a gun or put a bomb under a school bus, principal Alberta Nordberg said.

"It was a parent who made a verbal threat," Nordberg said. "I didn't know the person very well so I called the troopers."

She also followed school district policy in ordering classroom doors locked and teachers notified of potential trouble, said district spokesman Kim Floyd.

"Lockdown is a tool to promote student safety," Floyd said. "We practice those drills throughout the district because we want people to be as familiar with them as fire drills."

Nordberg said the threats were not carried out. Students were released from school at their regular time Tuesday afternoon.

"The kids didn't know a thing about it," Nordberg said.

Alaska State Trooper Jimmy Jones of the Talkeetna office contacted William Whited, who allegedly made the verbal threat, later in the day. Whited was subsequently arrested on an outstanding warrant, troopers said.