battlegroundclosing.JPG

A police car sits outside the closed Captain Strong Primary School in Battle Ground, where school officials closed a campus of five schools after a threat.

(Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian)

Police arrested a 13-year old Battle Ground student Wednesday afternoon

a teacher at his middle school, police officials said.

The threats made Tuesday night through Battle Ground school district website, shut down a five-school campus Wednesday.

School is expected to resume Thursday, police said.

The student, a boy, is a resident of incorporated Battle Ground. Acting on information provided to police by the FBI an Vancouver police, the boy was interviewed by Battle Ground police detectives and arrested at 3:30 p.m., said Lt. Roy Butler, a Battle Ground police spokesman.

"The closing of the schools was a measured response to act in the best interest of the safety of the students and staff," said Detective Sgt. Aaron Kanooth.

"We do take threats seriously. We put a lot of resources into our response," said Battle Ground Police chief Bob Richardson.

The school district sent a message Tuesday evening alerting parents and the school community to the threat.

Earlier this year, an 18-year-old student was arrested and charged with allegedly making a bomb threat at Battle Ground High School that sent more than 2,000 students home, but police said the latest threat is unrelated to that.

Just before noon Wednesday, the shutdown campus, which would normally be bustling with students at recess, was eerily quiet. A group of middle school boys pedaled their bikes through wide open parking lots.

Oleg Shkurko, 12, and his friends, were unsure what to do with the day that stretched out ahead, but said a trip to the lake could be in the offing. Shkurko said his sister woke him with the news that there would be no school after a call came, he said, from the principal of Chief Umtuch Middle School.

A lone Battle Ground police car, an officer inside, took shelter from the noonday sun, parked beneath a large shade tree in front of the Captain Strong Primary School.

To the south of Chief Umtuch Middle School, two boys lolled on the grass of ballfields, while a group of younger girls hawked lemonade on a nearby sidewalk. A weekday had become a Sunday.

-- Stuart Tomlinson and Kimberly A.C. Wilson