Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Security worry rattles Coral Springs High
Student seen scaling fence leads to lockdown day after California school shooting
A rebellious student, skipping out on class, set off a panic and lockdown Friday at Coral Springs High School after he was reported as an intruder.
Police screamed to the school, and staff and students hunkered in classrooms in fear of a gunman, a day after a student opened fire at a school in California, killing two before shooting and injuring himself.
In the end, authorities in Coral Springs said the student had been spotted scaling a fence to leave school early around 1 p.m. No one knew for sure early on, though, so authorities swiftly locked down the school.
Teachers and parents bemoaned that such innocuous events lead to terror in this age of school shootings, particularly after the murders of 17 people in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in nearby Parkland.
“It is a complete shame that students and faculty have to live in this reality where fear is paramount to education,” said Joshua Simmons, a Coral Springs High teacher who also is a city commissioner. “Teachers were scrambling and grabbing students out of the hallways and everyone was in fear. This is truly sad.”
Parents, some with young children, sobbed as they waited at the corner to walk to the school. Some seemed to be on the phone with students or others awaiting information. Parents eventually were allowed on campus, where they waited outside the entrance to sign their kids out.
One woman held onto a student as the girl buried her face in the woman’s shoulder and sobbed. The woman said, “I know, I know,” repeatedly as they walked out of the school. Students hugged their families and some told their parents everything was OK as they prepared to leave.
Broward has taken significant steps to shore up security at schools after the
Stoneman Douglas tragedy. at campuses across the county, as well as many security enhancements, such as more video surveillance cameras, upgraded intercoms and improvements to radio communications.
On Friday at Coral Springs High, a security crew had spotted the student by a fence and quickly alerted police.
The police’s backup included police dogs and drones, Police Chief Clyde Parry said. The school was locked down to be on the “side of caution” as they worked to figure out if the student had been coming onto campus or leaving.
The all-clear was given after about an hour, the
“We did take the potential for someone being on campus very seriously,” Sgt. Carla Kmiotek said. She said security crew gave police a description of the student and the clothes he was wearing, and an officer driving in the area found him walking at The Grove at Turtle Run, where he admitted jumping the fence to leave. The student was not taken into custody because he had not committed a crime, authorities said.
He was “just a student who wanted to leave school early,” Parry said.
The lockdown rattled students.
A sophomore was walking to fourth period and already was running a little late when she couldn’t walk into her classroom. “When I got there, they’re putting up desks in front of the door and the door is locked so I couldn’t get in,” said the student, who identified herself only as Sarah. “I was banging on the door.”
She ran to an open classroom and they let her in. They waited quietly for 40 minutes until they were told they were on a code green and everything was OK.
“I just want to go home,” she said. “I was so scared.”
A 14-year-old girl also had been walking in the hallway when the Code
Red, a call for the campus to lock down, went into effect. She went to her classroom door. It was locked. She banged on the door. Nothing. She went to another classroom. And another, banging, pleading to let her in. It finally worked. She rushed in a classroom to see fellow freshman in tears.
“It’s really hard,” said the girl’s sister, Thamara Fernandez.
Thamara Fernandez has just arrived at the school to pick her little sister up when the Code Red was called. She was pulled in the principal’s office and told to get on the floor and be very quiet. She’s 19 and a Coral Springs High graduate.
“When you go to school, you get used to all the Code Red and Code Yellow,” she said.
The atmosphere settled into a relaxed calm as people’s nerves subsided. “So much tension,” one woman sighed as she walked toward the school’s entrance.
Friday’s incident at Coral Springs High wasn’t the only lockdown in the city: Eagle Ridge Elementary in Coral Springs was locked down and teachers and students were delayed by 20 minutes for dismissal, but police said it was for a misdemeanor battery case at Enclave at Wyndham Lakes, a nearby neighborhood, and unrelated to the high school.
“Teachers were scrambling and grabbing students out of the hallways and everyone was in fear.” Joshua Simmons, Coral Springs High teacher and city commissioner