2008-12-17 WVHS Lockdown

For me, it started with a phone call.

At 8:46am last Wednesday a friend called and asked me what was going on. I had no idea what she might be talking about. She proceeded to tell me she’d gotten a text from her son at Waubonsie Valley High School that the school is under lockdown. She had talked to someone else and found out there is a gunman with a hostage. She wondered what I might have heard from my daughter Kathy, who is a junior at WV. And what I’d heard is nothing.

I immediately texted Kathy and hoped that she had her phone with her and would reply to me. I contacted friends by e-mail and message board to see if they knew anything. At 8:53 an e-mail was broadcast from the high school principal stating that the school was locked down as a precaution while they investigate a potential threat.

I heard that a gun had been seen on video. I heard that the Aurora Police Department was searching the building and that other area law enforcement agencies were assisting. A friend told me there was a staging area set up for parents in a nearby building.

What I wondered? A staging area for parents? How serious is this that we might all need to go rushing to be near the school? I pondered whether to call my husband on a business trip in Minnesota. If this really was nothing, then there would be no need to worry him. On the other hand, if something really serious was going on at the school, he might be upset that I didn’t tell him right away.

I e-mailed my newspaper editor, Mike Cetera, who quickly replied that there were many rumors about something happening at WV and they were on their way.

I called my husband and while we were talking, both my cell phone and home phone rang simultaneously with a recorded message from the school giving the same information as the e-mail. There had been a phone broadcast the night before about a bomb threat written on the school wall, something I don’t take too seriously, but a gun in the school is something else entirely. We have all seen too many times what can and does happen when someone brings a gun to school.

While the phone and e-mail messages made it appear that everyone was safe, I was concerned that I heard nothing back from my daughter and that if there was a gun in the school the person who had the gun may not care that the building is teeming with police officers. The fact that nothing had happened yet did not reassure me all that much but I was relieved that it seemed that the rumor of a hostage was just that.

A friend with younger children called to tell me she’d spoken to the superintendent’s office. She knew I’d be worried and wanted to let me know what they had told her. Again it was reassuring but the gun had still not been found, the lockdown continued, and I still had heard nothing from Kathy.

In addition to the message boards, Facebook, phone calls, and e-mails, things began to show up on the news websites so I followed that as well. I contacted work to let them know I would not be coming in until I had a better idea that all was well at the school.

Dozens of parents were showing up at the Eola Community Center and were kept informed by police. Many parents were reporting they heard something initially from their kids, but then stopped getting any text replies from them. I decided not to go to the Community Center, believing that keeping up with everything from home was most efficient and knowing/hoping that most likely the kids were fine. I was relieved to hear that the staging area was simply a place for the parents to go, as many were rushing to the school after receiving texts from their children, and the police did not want anyone entering the building until after the search.

Around 10am I heard that the initiating event was a 911 call from a student who had seen boys in the bathroom loading a gun. At the same time, there was a message from the principal that the Gold Campus (the freshman building across the street) was no longer locked down. Until then I’d had no idea that any action had been taken at that building.

Around 10:30 based on all that I had heard from multiple sources it seemed likely that all would be ok. I am usually a very calm person but from the time I had confirmation the school was under lockdown because of a gun in the building, until I heard enough to feel that the kids were most likely fine, I was running on adrenaline.

As I was driving to work I received a text from my daughter in college in Naperville asking what was going on at WV. She had gotten texts from two friends away at college about it. At work I continued to follow events in the same places but with the addition of a Twitter feed from the Beacon that was being updated every few minutes. I found out that the kids were locked down in first period, which meant both that the lockdown had begun long before I heard about it, and that my daughter was in PE, explaining why she wouldn’t have had any way to contact me.

There was news that clergy was arriving for the parents at the community center and counselors would be available for the students. This worried me that maybe there was more to this than an unsubstantiated report of a weapon.

At 12:30 we finally had confirmation by phone calls and e-mail that the five hour lockdown was over. A gun had been found, but it was an Airsoft pistol so while it could not have hurt anyone it looked remarkably like the real thing. Two students had been arrested. The student who reported the gun was commended. Parents were allowed to get their children out of school if they desired. Those who stayed in school followed a modified schedule for the remaining two hours of the day including shortened lunch periods for all.

At 1:30 I got a text from Kathy telling me that everything is fine, that she was in gym and didn’t have access to her backpack. This was what I’d been waiting for hours to hear. I ‘d have to wait for her to get home from school to find out whether she was mostly annoyed at the loss of a school day or if she had been scared.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I was off kilter the rest of the day. I was relieved that everyone was ok. I was glad that Prism rehearsal (the big concert of the year which in which all 10th-12th grade music students perform) would go on that night as planned. The actions of a couple of students caused an entire day of instruction to be lost shortly before finals. They cost many law enforcement hours and I’m sure thousands of hours of lost productivity for parents.

I hope that this event was useful for both local law enforcement and the school district in practicing for a real emergency that we hope never happens, in a way that no drill could ever replicate. I hope that most students and teachers were either bored or having fun and not scared and worried most of the time. I have heard from many people that the fear in the principal’s voice was obvious when she made the announcement about 7:30am that the school was locked down, and when she came back on minutes later to announce that this was a hard and not a soft lockdown. This both scared the students and staff and made all take the announcement seriously.

The students and many of the staff seemed to lack information about what was happening and what they might have to be afraid of, which led to more fear and certainly rumors that spread like wildfire with so many students having cell phones on them and some having window views of what was happening outside. I heard of kids in closets, under desks, or in corners for long periods of time. As time went on, the lack of food and lack of bathroom access became bigger and bigger issues. Apparently a pat-down and police escort would be required for a trip to the bathroom and if they hadn’t gotten to your room yet, you were out of luck, leading to make-shift wastebasket toilets in some classrooms.

The first notification of the lockdown sent to parents was more than an hour after it began. I definitely want the staff to deal with the situation at hand but at the same time it seems that one person being assigned to send info out to parents, whether at WV or the district office, could perhaps have spent a few minutes getting out accurate information to parents. This may have helped prevent some of the panic coming from uninformed text messages being sent by students in what seemed to be the world’s worst game of telephone. The phone system, which is new this year, worked out great in emergency mode for getting messages to all phone numbers for each student. Parents who did not receive some of the phone or e-mail messages now know they need to update their information with the school.

In hindsight the kids seem to think this is all very funny since the threat turned out not to be real. But from the stories I have heard of fearful students and brave teachers I know that it was not at all funny at the time.

I commend the Aurora Police Department, DuPage County Sheriff’s Department, the WV administration and anyone else who assisted in the lockdown and search of a building with over 3000 people in it - for keeping our kids safe and for finding the weapon and the culprits. I pray that the lessons learned this day are never ever needed.