On Feb. 7, a call went off alerting teachers to once again check their Parentsquare for pressing information, while students anxiously awaited for their teachers to share news. They learned that they would once again secure in place. For two hours and fifteen minutes, staff, students and parents shared an experience all too familiar for schools in the US and across the world.

Here are accounts of what transpired at various places around campus during the lock down:

The Office

“AGPD received the threat from a national hotline that there was a student in distress. I don’t know the exact verbiage of it but there was a student in distress in the bathroom who potentially had a bomb,” Principal Brad Grumbles said.

Once the threat was received, the school was told to go into secure place by local authorities which arrived to campus quickly.

“They came in phases, AGPD was on site first and then some sheriffs showed up, and those were the guys with the tactical vests. Then a little bit later the bomb-sniffing dogs [showed up],” Grumbles said in regards to the SWAT team and other authorities.

The office transformed into a headquarters for all safety and security procedures. Administration and local authorities located all potential evacuation points and bathrooms on campus.

“The police came through and made sure that there were no people in the bathrooms and then once they made sure there were no people in the bathrooms, they took the dogs through to make sure there was no smell [of bombs],” Grumbles stated.

Concern and stress filled the office as communication with teachers, students, and parents was yet another obstacle for the administration to deal with.

“Communication is hard because people want information fast. But we have to be very intentional when we communicate because we don’t want to misspeak. We don’t want to panic people,” Grumbles said.

Parents, students, and others expressed distress soon after the Parentsquare notification went out.

“When we communicate to teachers and parents, it’s shared on social media. It’s screenshotted. It’s texted. The [local news station] knows. The [local news station] called and asked for stories. So everybody knows when we go on lockdown,” Grumbles stated. “Five elementary schools don’t get food for the day, because our staff cooks breakfast and lunch for five other schools too.”

Three secretaries connected to a switchboard, ensuring all the demands of the public were handled and dealt with cautiously.

“We got consistent calls from parents. And so it’s constantly, ‘Everything’s okay. Police are on site. We’re working through it’,” Grumbles stated.

The Classrooms 

While the administration and local law enforcement were ensuring the campus was safe, students were locked inside their first-period classrooms for the second time in two weeks.

“We’ve created a society where this is normalized,” Skye Fernsler (’24) said.

Many teachers agreed that situations like the one that occurred on Feb. 7 are too common across the nation.

“We haven’t really had anything super serious here since I’ve been a teacher, but they happen every year, all across the country. And so I just think I want to make sure I do the right thing for my own safety for my students’ safety,” AP Calculus and Computer Science teacher Sam Vonderheide said.

Even though the threat AGPD received was false, students and teachers still experienced the full feeling of a lockdown. Students and teachers alike had to deal with a problem that no one had thought too much about prior to the lockdown, using the bathroom.

The majority of classrooms have lockdown buckets filled with supplies and whose lids double as a toilet seat.  Some classrooms were lucky enough to have large spare closets to ensure student privacy while using the buckets, while others were not so lucky and students had to hold up tarps as curtains to shield their peers while using the restroom.

“My closet’s pretty small, so it’s kind of like an airplane bathroom where you have to squeeze in there and use the bucket so it’s probably not ideal,” Algebra 2 and AP Statistics teacher Joseph Warrick said.

Many students and teachers felt that using the bucket was taboo, but many needed to use it.

“Once [a student] had used it then everyone else realized it’s not a big deal,” Warrick stated.

Vonderheide’s class had an interesting way of finding a safe place to use the restroom. They were in the computer lab, next to Mr. Ballesteros, whose first period is his prep period. Vonderheide, like other teachers and students during the lockdown, needed to use the restroom, but there was no privacy in the room he was located in. Vonderheide remembered the connecting doors between the computer lab and Mr. Ballesteros classroom. After a long discussion and moving desks, cords and computers out of the way, two classrooms became one. A safe place was made for students and teachers to use the restroom.

“Five total people ended up needing to [use the emergency bucket]. It was nice not to feel like ‘I’m going to try and hold it for hours,’” Vonderheide said. “I’m almost kind of glad we went through it.”

While some students were worried about using the bathroom, others were concerned about staying in contact with their parents.

“During the lockdown, some teachers allowed students to use phones and some didn’t. That becomes critical because parents want to communicate with their kids. And so for that safety piece, that’s something we’re going to have to deal with,” Grumbles said.

Students who were allowed their phones were allowed communication with their parents and their peers, which led to pictures of SWAT teams and sniffing dogs being shared on social media platforms.

“I saw that picture before I knew anything was going on. And so I was like, Okay, this feels serious. So that was definitely disconcerting, but it wasn’t ever like to the point where I was like, ‘oh my god am I going to survive or like get hurt or anything?’” Fernsler said.

Parents were frantically texting students to ensure they were safe and just mentally doing okay.

“My dad texted me, and so he was like checking in to make sure I was doing okay,” Fernsler said.

Emotions from students varied throughout the campus. Some students located in the MPR or near places with views of the SWAT team were more concerned than others, but tension filled the air on AGHS campus.

“I wonder if this bothered some students more than I realized,” Vonderheide stated.

Warrick’s and Vonderheide’s classroom couldn’t see much of the action compared to other classrooms.

“Every once in a while, someone would appear out the window and we did see at one point like the police dog coming through and stuff like that,” Warrick stated.

The fact that these events occur so much throughout our world, has normalized the events for some but left others in distress. Many students and parents were concerned about safety even after the all-clear occurred, resulting in a lack of attendance in the following periods.

The Aftermath 

Attendance plummeted after the all-clear, with fourth period having a total of 593 absences.

“There are so many legitimate reasons why students in that situation need to go home and parents for that matter too. I don’t fault anyone,” Goosen said. “We would not continue school if there was continuing danger.”

Soon after the all-clear was sent out parents and students caused chaos for faculty.

“We had almost 100 voicemails to go through and we [didn’t] have time to listen to them,” attendance personnel Dawn Lewis stated. “There was such a line [because] we had to talk to each parent individually because we couldn’t get through to the voice messages.”

While many students left campus, law enforcement and staff were proud of the students, teachers, and staff’s actions throughout the lockdown.

“The police department afterward said that we were the most prepared school that they’ve been to,” Grumbles said. “I’m really proud of the way that everybody responded and I’m really proud that everybody took it seriously.”

In society today, students, teachers and faculty have normalized these events, yet when these events occur everyone needs to continue to take the situation seriously.

“Mainly it’s just the world we live in. The staff is very anxious to make sure that all parties are completely safe. The reason why is to verify that there is not a threat, so even when they think this does not sound like a threat, they will check under every rock to make sure,” Lewis stated.

While both threats that have occurred in the last two weeks have been false, the school’s precautions have proved advantageous.

“We still have to keep treating [threats] like they may be real because well, like we talked about in AP Stats, it’s way better to err on the side of caution than not,” Warrick said.

Many students left campus after the all-clear was sent out for various reasons. Staff, students and parents hope these events do not continue to occur as they are disruptive for learning; often scary for students and take away emergency resources that might be needed elsewhere.

“I just hope that this isn’t a trend because it seems like it was fake, but done on purpose,” Vonderheide said.

AGHS will continue to take threats like these seriously for the safety of all people on campus.

“We live in a world where we have to take those things seriously, so when they do pop up, we cannot not take it seriously,” Grumbles said.

This story was originally published on The Eagle Times on February 22, 2024.