Intruder alarm tripped at high school, all clear given
The intruder alert siren went off at Eureka High School around 11:40 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 4.
“Our teacher had us in the corner,” Shay Nolen (10) said. “But we eventually ended up barricading the door.”
Students followed the procedures they had been instructed to carry out in the event of an emergency during Flex time.
“I was confused,” Monica Zesch (12) said. “At first, I thought it was a drill, but then I saw people running outside.”
Students fled to the football field, woods and houses, while others stayed inside the school on lock-down.
“We were in weightlifting and I went to dress out,” Dante Childs (10) said. “All of the sudden, the alarm started going off. We walked out to the field and then everyone started taking off, so we followed. There was a gap in the fence that people were running through, but we just hopped it.”
Both the Eureka and Wildwood Police forces came to EHS to investigate.
The school received the all-clear shortly after noon.
“The only two sounds you could hear were the intruder alarm and the jack hammering from construction that sounded like a gun,” Maddie Bee (11) said.
A glitch in the intercom system set the alarm off, according to Principal Charlie Crouther.
The siren marked the second accidental alarm to go off at EHS in just one week after the fire alarm falsely sounded, Aug. 29.
“We have been very well trained for this, so you go into autopilot of what you’re supposed to do,” Lauren Schoellhorn, Social Studies, said. “I’m very grateful for that training. Some of the kids responded very quickly, helped me with the door, got the couch up, I got somebody’s belt and zip tied the top of the door. I just got the kids away from the windows, got them in a safe spot, and did my best to keep them calm as possible.”
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S Bracken • Sep 5, 2019 at 3:17 PM
Thank you for reporting! As a parent I felt the kids got to safety quickly and that was the thing that everyone trains for. Grateful for a prepared staff, a great police department, and kiddos who didn’t freak out but did what they needed to do to stay safe! Glad it was a false alarm but certainly a good learning experience.
norah halley • Sep 5, 2019 at 8:36 AM
I’m not a student at Eureka, I’m a student at a neighboring highschool and I’m extremely upset at the way things were handled. Eureka is a good school; nevertheless this situation was NOT handled in the right way by the majority of administration from what I’ve heard. This could easily happen at my school too in that case. This district has a responsibility to keeps kids safe. The reality is that this is how our country is, and we need better organization because if that alarm had been for a real situation today, who knows what could have happened.