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1:45am

Yesterday evening, I informed you that we had information on a potential threat to Westlake
High School by a WHS student. As soon as the information became known to our high school
administration, we immediately began working with the Travis County Sheriff's Office and Austin
Police Department to assess the threat. The following information has more detail, and what we
know now, as of 1:45 a.m.
We received reports yesterday from students and parents that a teenage male had made
statements indicating that he was going to do harm to others at Westlake HS. We immediately
shared the identity of that individual with the authorities, who have been working with us
cooperatively through late evening and early morning to locate this individual and investigate
the allegations.
At this time, we can report that the student who made the threat has been located and is being
evaluated. Westlake HS will continue to work with law enforcement as those agencies
determine what actions they need to pursue, if any. Based on information received from law
enforcement, we do not believe that any students or staff members are in danger, and, as such,
plan to resume school as usual on Thursday.
We understand that this type of an event can be troubling to many in our community. As I said
in my message last night, we understand if parents want to keep their student(s) at home. We
will honor parents' decisions regarding their child's attendance today. In order to provide
support, we will ensure that counselors make their schedules open so that they are available to
talk to students this morning, if any student feels a need for such support.
We thank the Austin Police Department and the Travis County Sheriff's Office for their hard
work to quickly assess the situation, investigate, and work with Westlake HS staff on safety
measures. We also thank the West Lake Hills Police for reaching out to us to provide additional
support.
I want to reiterate how proud I am of the young adults in our community who acted quickly in
alerting us to this potential situation.
I apologize for the late night and early morning communication on this situation, but we hope
you understand that safety is very important to us. If we are made aware of possible security

issues, we believe transparent and timely communication to parents, when possible, is


essential. We take our responsibility to inform parents with as much information as we can
when in serious situations such as these.
Thank you,

Dr. Tom Leonard


tleonard@eanesisd.net
Dr. Tom Leonard, Superintendent of Schools, Eanes Independent School District

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