CAMAS, Wash. (KATU) – A school principal in Washington State has been put on leave after receiving threats for a social media post about Kobe Bryant’s death and the previous rape accusation against him.
Rumors that someone might bring a gun to Camas High School Wednesday brought extra police patrols and convinced students like senior Kennedy, who asked that we not use her last name, to leave school Wednesday morning, especially after she kept seeing chat messages from friends, talking about the threats popping up on her phone.
The threat reports came after Camas High Principal Liza Sekjora posted about basketball star Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash was “karma.” It’s a post that Sekjora apologized for Tuesday. She said, “This was a situation where I didn’t think before I posted, and I’m terribly regretful about that.”
The reported threats convinced Camas School Superintendent Jeff Snell to put Sekjora on administrative leave even though he says all of the threats involving a gun appear to lead back to one single source.
Snell said, “In that there was some information that would lead you to believe that somebody was threatening Dr. Sekjora. And so we contacted the Camas Police Department.”
Camas Police Debrah Riedl said, “There were no weapons or dangerous weapons on campus. The story kind of began with a couple of students on a bus talking about what if and that conversation was overheard, misinterpreted, and then spread like wildfire.”
More than 1,000 of the school’s 2,100 students were either absent or left school early because of the threats.
The school district doesn’t know how long Sejkora will be on leave.
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