Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, June 11, 2009

Lake Stevens school quells vampire rumors

By Kaitlin Manry
Herald Writer

 LAKE STEVENS -- Lake Stevens school administrators want to drive a stake through rumors that vampires -- or children making believe they were undead -- abducted and bit two Mount Pilchuck Elementary School students.

There are no vampires in Lake Stevens, officials say.

The truth is that on Friday afternoon, a seventh-grade girl hugged a younger boy in a park near the school, district spokeswoman Arlene Hulten said.

The boy, a fifth-grader, was with a fourth-grade friend and they were waiting with their classmates at the school for their parents to pick them up after a field trip, Hulten said.

The two boys wandered away to a disc golf park that is adjacent to the school. There they met two middle-schoolers. One of them, a seventh-grade girl from North Lake Middle School, acknowledges hugging one of the boys and talking to him, but insists she didn't bite him, Hulten said.

The boys ran back to school and told adults that one had been hugged and bitten on the forehead. The boy was not bleeding and had no marks or bruises, Hulten said.

Lake Stevens police were called, but the boy's parents didn't follow up, so police have nothing to pursue, said Police Chief Randy Celori.

The story has spiraled into rumors that the boys were bitten all over their faces and had to be rescued from the forest. Some thought the recent movie "Twilight" and a current HBO series about vampires inspired the incident.

On Wednesday, letters explaining the incident went home with students at Mount Pilchuck Elementary School and at the east campus of Sunnycrest Elementary to help stave off rumors.

The seventh-grade girl was advised not to hug strangers, but was not further disciplined, Hulten said.

"This equates in our minds to harassment -- nothing more than that," she said. "There was no physical harm. There were no marks, scratches, bites or anything of that nature."

Herald Writer Jackson Holtz contributed to this story.

Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292, kmanry@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA