school locked down due to shooting threat

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My granddaughter is in headstart and I already had to go and pick her up because I heard that there was a shooting their.

It turns it was not a shooting but a prank call saying that a teacher or teachers would be shot. The whole school had to be searched and locked down!

I picked her and some neighbor children up and brought them home,even though it seemed by them that it was just a hoax and all was well.

All is not well, when someone has to call and threaten something like that.

I so understand why people homeschool these days.

I heard (right or not I do not know) that it was through a cell phone so hopefully it will be traced that the person or persons will be dealt with harshly.

What is wrong with people these days that they would be so bored or deranged that they would call a school with young children and threaten anyone?

I just don't get people these days.

Duluth News Tribune article

Her daughters’ first day at Nettleton Magnet Elementary School Monday is not one that Linda Carrillo is likely to forget.

Carrillo was in the hall at about 11:25 a.m., in the midst of paperwork to transfer her two girls from Grant to Nettleton, when the school nurse directed her: “Get in there, get under the desk!”

Carrillo ducked into the nurse’s office and crouched under a table for about 10 minutes with five students, a teacher and the nurse as police checked out a 911 call that said a teacher had been shot.

“We heard the sirens, then we heard more coming,” Carrillo said. “The kids sat there really quiet — concerned, but not panicking.”

Dozens of law enforcement officers converged on the school in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood after an apparent prank call that put the school in lockdown. No one was hurt. Children were allowed to continue their day after police searched the building and found nothing wrong.

Police said someone who sounded like a child used a 911-only cell phone at 11:23 a.m. and reported a teacher had been shot at the school. No teacher was identified by the caller. The dispatcher heard children screaming in the background.

“There was an officer on every floor, going room to room,” said Sgt. Leigh Wright, Duluth police spokeswoman. “It was apparent within several minutes no one was injured, students not injured, teacher wasn’t shot.”

Attention turned Monday to finding out who made the call. Authorities said they know the phone number but were unable to return a call to the special cell phone. Police believe the call came from school grounds, Wright said.

“We’ll circle back and try to figure out what happened and see if we can trace the call,” Superintendent Keith Dixon said a short time later. “But things are safe at the school.”

Almost a dozen Duluth police, St. Louis County deputies and Minnesota State Patrol squads responded to the call.

Students on the playground for recess were kept outside and herded onto a DTA bus to keep warm, seemingly oblivious to the potential threat. Children in the school remained locked in their rooms as planned during drills for just such an emergency.

“Everything worked like we drill for,” said Joe Hill, assistant Duluth schools superintendent. “The school locked down instantly, and police were here in minutes. It went very well.”

According to the school district’s Web site, a lockdown involves securing students in areas within the building. Only law enforcement officers are allowed to enter or leave the building.

Hill said the district hadn’t received any further information from police about a possible suspect in the incident by the end of the school day but said he expected to learn more today.

Stephanie Heilig, Nettleton principal, told parents who rushed to the scene that everything was OK and that students would continue with their day. She allowed the parents into the building to talk with their children.

Danielle Hendrickson picked up her son, Blaine, a fifth-grader, after she saw a report of the prank on duluthnewstribune.com. She took him from school because she wanted to answer any questions her son might have about why someone would make such a call.

“I would rather take care of the aftermath on my own,” she said.

Kevin Skwira-Brown, a Nettleton parent, heard about the incident from another parent after police had determined it was a prank. He said he felt confident that teachers and administrators at the school could handle the situation and chose not to drive down to pick up his kids.

“I suspect it was very stressful for [the teachers] ... and it was my expectation that they would handle themselves very professionally to keep our kids safe,” he said. He added that teachers are the ones on the front lines in this kind of situation. “They are the ones on the ground and I just want to acknowledge the role they play in responding to what exists in this world and could happen at any school, and that is the potential for crazy violence.”

Carrillo left her second and fourth-grade students at school Monday to finish their first day.

“There are a lot of children to keep track of and keep safe,” she said. “You trust that the people who have your kids are professional and it’s the best you can do. They did a great job. It doesn’t matter where you are, who you are; it can happen.”

Children at the K-5 school remained there for the day, and letters and phone calls to Nettleton parents were to go out Monday. Nettleton, at First Avenue East and East Fifth Street, has about 400 students.

News Tribune staff writers Sarah Horner and Mark Stodghill contributed to this report.