Shotgun or Overreaction?
On November 1, a man with a shotgun was seen walking towards Edna Maguire elementary school. Was it just a rumor, or was it the truth? In an interview on November 1, Mr. Huxley cleared everything up.
That Thursday shortly before 9 am, Mr. Huxley got an email about the reported rumor, and then he got a call from the school district that Edna Maguire Elementary School was locked down. The lockdown lifted after 35 minutes. The rumor was that a neighbor close to Edna had spotted a suspicious man holding what appeared to be a rifle. He was walking straight towards Edna. He was said to be 20 years old and wearing an orange shirt. The neighbor reported to the police and took precautions.
So why weren’t we locked down? Tam High School, which is further from Edna, was locked down. Mr. Huxley said that it was an overreaction; it was just a false alarm. But, MVMS did take precautions, such as locking the outside doors. The campus safety officer also checked the campus. Mr. Huxley talked to the police and they said not to lockdown because it would cause panic. A shotgun was never found. Mr. Huxley and Ms. Lazzarini decided not to make an announcement because they did not want students and staff to panic.
Still, Mr. Huxley continues to be concerned about school safety, and the school board is still looking for ways to make kids physically and emotionally safe. “There are big gaps that you can walk on this campus, that concerns me,” Mr. Huxley said.
The mood at Tam High was scary. “There were people running on the campus after we found out,” an anonymous high school student said.
By Mohammed
STAFF WRITER
