Boulder – University of Colorado commencement ceremonies were being held under stepped-up security today, one day after a scare at nearby Boulder High School.
About 18,000 people attended the exercises, in addition to about 5,000 graduates, at Folsom Stadium on CU’s campus, which borders the grounds of the high school.
SWAT officers searched the high school for four hours Thursday after a cook discovered two young males dressed in camouflage before students arrived. They ran off when she yelled at them and no sign of the men was found inside, police said.
Classes resumed at the high school Friday morning, with only two entrances, rather than the usual 10, open as students filed in.
Staffers were posted at each entrance and two more police officers joined the one normally assigned to the school.
“With those changes, the building opened on time. School attendance is normal,” school district spokesman Briggs Gamblin said.
Police don’t have much to go on in the Thursday school lockdown. One intruder was wearing a ski mask and the cook didn’t get a good description of the second person, police chief Mark Beckner said. If they were students, he expected word to spread among the students.
CU was scheduled to give out 5,650 degrees today. Golfer Hale Irwin, a 1967 graduate, was to address the graduates.
Gov. Bill Ritter was also scheduled to address the university’s law school graduates at a separate ceremony later in the day.
