Devices at Vancouver schools not bombs, police say

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Police have determined that two "suspicious devices" reported at schools in Vancouver were not explosives.

Schools were to be taken out of lockdown status Tuesday afternoon, according to officials.

Bomb squads were called out to Vancouver’s Evergreen High School and two other nearby schools put on lockdown after a threat and suspicious devices were found Tuesday.

Police teams said they neutralized a suspicious backpack with a water explosion in the bus parking area just after noon.

That was after an employee found a threatening note in a bathroom at Evergreen, according to Kim Kapp from Vancouver Police. Two other suspicious devices were found in and around the school and bomb squads were checking those out.

Students from Evergreen High School, Legacy High School and Cascade Middle were put on lockdown. Evergreen was evacuated and busses were called in to take the students from the two other school home throughout the afternoon.

Parents were asked not to come to the schools because of the police activity.

Evergreen has about 1,800 students, Legacy 200 and Cascade 900.