SAN ANTONIO — A false report of a shooting at a South Texas high school on Tuesday caused a lockdown and a clash between police and parents who rushed to the campus.
One parent was injured after the lockdown at Jefferson High School in San Antonio, KSAT-TV reported. The man cut his arm trying to break a window to gain access to the locked-down school, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
“The stress of the situation got to him,” San Antonio Independent School District Police Chief Johnny Reyes told KSAT.
Parents scrambled to take their children home after the lockdown was lifted, as memories of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde remained fresh in their minds. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at the elementary school.
“We received an anonymous call through SAPD at about 12:59 p.m. or 1:03 p.m., Reyes told WOAI-TV.
Nearly 90 officers from the school district and the San Antonio Police Department responded to the scene, KENS-TV reported.
“We are overwhelmed with fear of the worst,” Pete Vela told the Express-News as he and his wife waited outside the school to pick up their 15-year-old son. “I definitely got over here quick. I left work and came quick. Ultimately if there was somebody in there, then I don’t blame the parents for wanting to get in, especially after what happened in Uvalde.”
“We just thought it was a drill, honestly, and then things started escalating. We heard cop car sirens. We heard the choppers above,” Sara Estrada, a senior the school, told KSAT.
Reyes said the delay in releasing students was caused by officers doing a “methodical search room by room with our strike teams.”
“We went to the place where they said the shooting had occurred and we were able to quickly establish that no shooting had happened,” Reyes told the Express-News.
Officers also checked for evidence of gunfire and interviewed students who were identified as being involved in an altercation, the Express-News reported.
The district sent a voice message, then an email, starting at 1:51 p.m. CDT, district spokesperson Laura Short told the newspaper.
Superintendent Jaime Aquino said the police response was executed properly.
“Our kids were safe,” Aquino told WOAI. “We followed our protocol and our process. And we practiced for this, so I am proud that we were able to do that. I know we are living in very difficult times. But you need to trust us.”
Taylor Robertson, a professor of criminal justice at Schreiner University in Kerrville, told KENS that crisis communication is important and hopes that it can improve.
“We shouldn’t tell people just to stay away from schools. We should tell them where to go,” Robertson told the television station. “We can have places where people can rally in parking lots and at other facilities, and then as more information comes in, we can provide that to parents and community members.”
“We empathize with all of you,” Aquino wrote in a letter to parents, according to KSAT. “It is important to know (that) when a school is locked down, students and staff cannot be released until officers determine that the threat has been resolved, give clearance, and lift the lockdown. In the future, we will deploy district staff to the campus grounds to keep families on the scene informed of what is happening and the status of the reunification process.”
Estrada said she agreed with the safety protocols.
“I can’t just run out there if there’s a shooter outside. They have to understand that,” Estrada told KSAT. “If there was a shooting or active shooting, and a parent got into the school to go get their kid, how is the teacher going to know that’s not the shooter?”