Student describes Norwalk High lockdown after weapon threat

NORWALK — Cameron Mansfield, 14, was in his third period health class Friday afternoon when he had to go on lockdown.

The freshman at Norwalk High School didn’t know why. He said rumors spread quickly between students’ phones, including some students claiming to have heard gun shots. Police did not confirm there were gunshots and said no weapons were found.

“I was worried if I could make it out safe or not,” Mansfield said.

Police rushed to Norwalk High School just after noon Friday after the city’s dispatch received a phone call “indicating that there was an alleged student at Norwalk High School in possession of a weapon,” police said.

The threat later turned out to be a hoax, police said. Officers did not find any weapons at the school.

Norwalk was one of three Connecticut schools that were targets of threats Friday. Hamden High School canceled all classes after a threat was posted online Thursday night while Danbury High dismissed early Friday after a false report of shots fired near the school and other threats, according to previous reports.

While under lockdown, Mansfield texted his father, 36-year-old Joshua Rice, who had only received a notification from the school that the building was on lockdown.

“As a parent, you want details immediately,” Rice said. He thought of the school shooting in Michigan that left four students dead earlier this week, and the bomb threat at Norwalk High School just Wednesday. “I immediately freaked out.”

Mansfield wasn’t allowed to call his father, so they texted back and forth. The teenager was stuck in the classroom for about an hour until students were evacuated to the gym. Around 2:30 p.m., the school’s 1,900 students were released for dismissal.

Mansfield said the school has conducted shooting drills before to prepare the students, the most recent being in mid-October, he said.

But Rice thinks the school could’ve done a better job at relaying information to its students and parents.

“It really gets under my skin that they keep the children in the dark,” he said.

Norwalk Public Schools Superintendent Alexandra Estrella said in a video posted Friday evening that, “despite the challenges,” the school district wanted to make sure parents were “actively informed throughout the day” in terms of measures the school and police department took to ensure students’ safety.

“Today, all protocols were followed by the book. It was a great job by all staff and collaboration with NPD (Norwalk Police Department),” one school official said on the video on the district’s Facebook page.

The school district started a safety task force a few days to assess the district’s safety protocols, as well as look at how to strengthen those responses, Estrella said.

Rice also believes the school should put in metal detectors and have more security to ensure the safety of its students.

“Every single measure has to be taken,” Rice said.

A team of school counselors are scheduled to go to Norwalk High School Monday to help students who may have been affected by the incident, Estrella said.

Norwalk police have partnered with federal law enforcement agencies to identify the person who called in Friday’s threat.

Working with federal agencies is not uncommon. Several Norwalk police officers are assigned to work with federal agencies such as the U.S Marshal Violent Fugitive Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s local office and the FBI Task Force, according to Sgt. Sofia Gulino with the Norwalk Police Department.

These partnerships provide further access to resources to aid in investigations, as well as make the investigative process more fluid for crimes connected to the city, Gulino said.