The high school was instructed to stay put during Pre-ACT and ACT testing today due to a phone-call bomb threat that police deemed not credible.
According to district emergency information for families, a stay put order is used when there is a non-threatening situation, such as a medical emergency, occurring in the building. Hallways are cleared and students and staff remain where they are while instruction continues.
The order was called at approximately 11:30 a.m., and lasted until 12:07 p.m. Students continued testing during that time. The latest scheduled proctoring went until approximately 1:15 p.m for students with extended testing time. Most testing ended at 11:45 a.m. However, students were kept in their testing rooms until the stay put order ended.
Principal Isaiah Wyatt said that the Shaker Heights Police Department responded to the threat and brought K-9 dogs to search the outside perimeter of the high school for bombs while students and staff remained inside and didn’t move. The police then cleared parts of the building that allowed staff to then release students.
Parents and guardians received an email and robocall from the district at approximately 12:08 p.m. stating that a lockdown had been called at the high school, Fernway Elementary School and Onaway Elementary School.
Kristen Miller, director of strategic communications, said the lockdowns of Fernway and Onaway were issued out of extreme caution. “Information was coming in rapidly, and those buildings initiated lockdowns out of an abundance of caution. It was quickly determined that other school buildings were not impacted by the possible threat, so no other schools went into lockdown,” Miller said.
Wyatt said he made the stay put call due to the specific nature of the threat the school received. “On the call that came in, the thing that made it different, was that it was very specific: ‘I am coming to the school in a white Camry, and I have assault rifles, and I’m gonna be there in X amount of time, and I have eight bombs. It’s gonna be placed outside of your building.’ That information is what drove the response,” he said.
More commonly, phone-call threats are vague, said Wyatt, such as “I’m going to blow up your school, or I’m coming to drop a bomb” at your school.
Sophomore Ian Nelson said his ACT proctor told everyone to stay seated. “The proctor told us to not move. They kept all of us for an extra 45 minutes. The test was over by 11:30, but they didn’t let us go until 12:15. We couldn’t even have our phones to update our parents,” he said.
The district typically alerts staff of emergencies through the Navigate 360 emergency app, which prompts a loud siren sound from staff cell phones. However, Wyatt said that due to testing, they chose to communicate the existence of the threat and the stay put order through email and in person. An 11:29 a.m. email from Wyatt to high school staff said that the high school was operating under a stay put condition. “We are able to operate business as usual inside the building,” he said. The email instructed all testing rooms to hold students until at least 12:15 p.m. Wyatt wrote that a team of people went to each room to deliver this communication.
Sophomore Annika Hudson said that students weren’t aware of the stay put order while taking breaks. “Testing resumed as normal. Nothing really changed, but I did notice Mr. Wyatt leave the testing room. I didn’t see we were in lockdown until I saw it on someone’s Snapchat story” after the test, she said.
Wyatt said that SHPD was in the front parking lot to let families who had arrived to pick up their students after the test know what was going on and that staff was not allowed to release students at that time.
Because staff was limited to releasing students through the lower cafeteria, a staggered release was employed to avoid crowding the exit. Students who intended to eat lunch at school were dismissed to the upper cafeteria. All students were instructed to exit from the lower cafeteria.
Sophomore Carolyn Lauritsen said she learned about the stay put order by overhearing staff discussions. “I only found out about the bomb threat because I overheard a teacher’s phone call,” she said.
According to published news reports, schools throughout Ohio received the same threat today and went into lockdowns, including Rocky River High School, Auburn Career Center, Ottawa Hills High School, Bowling Green High School, Indian Hill High School, Mason High School and Cincinnati Public Schools’ Walnut Hills High School. No danger was found at any of the schools.
According to the Ohio Department of Education, Ohio began requiring all 11th grade students to take a state-funded ACT test in the spring of 2017.
After dismissal, activities continued normally at the high school, including any pre-planned after-school clubs. Police remained stationed outside of the building.
Editor-in-Chief Isabel Siegel contributed to this report.
