Boulder High Shut Down After Unconfirmed Reports Of Intruders

Thursday, May 10th 2007, 5:56 pm

By: News On 6

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) _ A four-hour SWAT team search of Boulder High School turned up no sign of intruders Thursday after a cook reported seeing two suspicious men in the building at about dawn, both wearing camouflage and one wearing a ski mask.

Authorities said no classes or groups were meeting at the time the cook reported seeing the men. Police sealed off the building and school officials canceled classes for the day.

The cook, whose name was not released, said she was in the first-floor kitchen of the three-story school when she spotted two young men in the adjacent cafeteria at about 6 a.m.

They fled when she yelled at them, and she did not see the face of the unmasked man clearly enough to give a description, Police Chief Mark Beckner said.

There was no sign that either was armed, Beckner said.

``We don't know if this is a prank, we don't know if this is a burglary, we don't know if it's something more than that,'' he said. ``You really can't take any chances these days.''

School was scheduled to resume Friday, but with only two doors unlocked instead of the usual 10, and they were to open at 7 a.m., a half-hour later than usual. Officials said school staffers would be stationed at both open entrances.

Beckner said a witness reported seeing three or four people dressed in black on a bike path near the school at 4:30 a.m., one of them wearing a ski mask. The witness described having a casual, non-confrontational conversation with them, Beckner said.

Video from one of 15 surveillance cameras outside the school showed two people running away from the school at 5 a.m., Beckner said. The school has no interior surveillance cameras, officials said.

The SWAT search, consisting of 23 officers in three teams, found no sign of a break-in, Beckner said. At one point during the search, two officers could be seen on the roof, their rifles drawn.

A preliminary search by a dozen officers and a bomb-sniffing dog had also turned up nothing.

Beckner said the search included a series of utility access tunnels under the building. Chris King, deputy superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District, said he did not believe anyone could have gotten into the school through the tunnels.

King said all the doors should have been locked at 6 a.m., but he said school officials had not been able to verify that they were. He said the only employees known to have been inside at the time were the cook and two custodians.

King said there was no indication the school's alarm system had gone off overnight. He said custodians customarily disarm the system when they arrive.

Boulder High freshman Jake Hanifin, 15, said the incident didn't sound like a prank.

``I think it's hard to believe it's a joke if a kid comes in with a ski mask,'' he said while talking with friends outside a snowboard shop a few blocks from the school. ``To push a joke to that limit would be pretty intense.''

Sophomore Sara Fleegler, 15, who was in the nearby downtown district with friends, said the scare was out of character for ``such a relaxed place'' as Boulder.

``It's just crazy that people could be in the school when it wasn't opened up yet,'' she said.

The University of Colorado alerted students, faculty and staff on the northwest part of its campus, which abuts the high school campus. No classes or other activities were interrupted, spokesman Bronson Hilliard said.

Beckner said no threats against the 1,900-student high school had been made in recent days.

Graffiti was found inside the building in late March or early April saying people would die on April 19, the day before the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.

Classes were held that day with extra security, King said.