3 arrested in school lockdown
Calexico High School campus was placed on lockdown Thursday afternoon after it was reported that a student was potentially in possession of a hand gun.
Calexico police officers searched the suspected student’s backpack and found a replica gun. Calexico Police Department announced that three students were taken into custody in connection to the incident. At approximately 2:40 p.m., the police department received a call from a student regarding a potential weapon on campus, stated the Calexico Unified School District.
Calexico police officers and Border Patrol agents responded immediately and placed the campus on lockdown. A CUSD press release stated that due to the nature of the incident, the police department deemed it necessary to lock down the campus and initiate a search.
Karla Magdaleno, a junior at Calexico High, stated she was outside of class when the school was placed on lockdown.
“The alarm went off. We thought it was a fire. A student ran outside and told us to run inside so we ran back inside. When we were inside, a student whose parent works in the district told us it was real (lockdown),” stated Karla on the incident.
Calexico police coordinated with school staff to locate the suspected student. The student was separated from others and a replica gun with a red tip was found the in the student’s backpack, stated a Calexico Police Department press release.
Calexico’s Chief of Police Reynaldo Gomez announced that three students had been taken into custody at 3:55 p.m.
The police department stated whether or not any threat of violence was made by the students is still under investigation.
Calexico High School junior Sasha Bello stated she received photos of the students being arrested.
“There was about four of them. There was SWAT, Border Patrol and police,” commented Sasha on what she saw during the lockdown.
The police department began allowing sections of the campus to be released at approximately 3:40 p.m. and stated that all students and staff were safe. “When it happened I was scared because of the previous incident that they wanted to shoot the school,” explained Sasha regarding an incident on May 9, which three students at the school were booked for conspiracy to commit murder and stalking.
Police did not return calls to verify if Thursday’s lockdown is related to May 9’s incident.
“Honestly I don’t know if I feel safe at school now. This is happening too frequent. School is where we supposedly are all safe and that’s not happening,” said Karla on the recent lockdown. “Every time there’s a lockdown, we don’t know if it’s a joke or serious.”
After the arrest of the three students on May 9, CUSD announced extra security has been added to the high school and a crisis team had been identified to help students and staff.
The school district also announced safety plans and procedures are in place at all sites to ensure that any disruption is handled quickly and safely.