Lockdown alarms parents
BUTLER TWP — Shaken parents of students at McQuistion Elementary School said Tuesday they were upset by the way Butler School District administrators handled a lockdown at the building.
At the root of their concerns, parents said, was the lack of information from the district on the reason for the lockdown.
“We didn't hear anything, that's the thing,” said Trish Harrison, who has a secondgrader at the school.”
Harrison and other parents faulted the district for failing to alert them quickly as the lockdown was put in place, and later for not releasing details of the situation that prompted district officials to take action in the first place.
“We should know why,” said Whitney Kerry-Cousins, the parent of a first-grade student at the school.
The school district put McQuistion elementary on building lockdown Tuesday after an errant bullet struck a window on the rear side of the building, which is on Mechling Drive. Acting Superintendent William Pettigrew said the bullet shattered the window but did not make it inside the building.
“It had to come for a considerable distance,” Pettigrew said. “It shattered the window but it (was) just laying there.”
Pettigrew said a state police forensic team was conducting an investigation as of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, but staff members at the building gave the all-clear to parents assembled outside an hour earlier.
“Everyone's safe, everything's fine,” came an announcement over the school's loudspeaker at about 12:30 p.m. “It's all good and we're going to resume class.”
The lockdown interrupted
Laurie Lucas, the parent of a kindergarten student, said she was in her car with another child when she saw buses that would normally take the students home simply leave the school's parking lot. Shortly thereafter, Lucas said, police cruisers begin arriving at the school. But it wasn't until about 30 minutes later, she said, that Lucas received an automated notification about the lockdown on her phone.
The district used its automated alert system to alert parents of the lockdown, but parent Dave Lynn, who has a kindergarten student at the school, faulted the system as too slow. Lynn said he heard about the lockdown from his mother, who lives in Tionesta, Pa., before the district's robocall came through.
Lynn and his wife, Kerry, became concerned after their child's bus was 12 minutes late and drove to the school, where they joined about a dozen other concerned parents on the building's sidewalk.
“They at least owe us an explanation of what's going on,” said Lynn. “Concerned people are out here wondering.”
Shortly before 12:30 p.m. a Butler City police officer walked out of the building and, on the way to his cruiser, assured people that all students at the school were safe. But he demurred when parents asked for more information on the lockdown, leaving the frustrated group searching again for more information as children were retrieved from inside the school by their parents.
Asked about the critiques, Pettigrew said the district had handled the situation well, and had done the right thing by waiting for police to begin their investigation before disseminating information about the nature of the lockdown.
“In a situation like that you've got to be very cautious about how much information you let out,” he said. “We notified parents as soon as we knew what the situation was.”
Butler Township police, who responded to the school's initial alert and are also investigating the incident, said that numerous interviews with people inside and outside the school found that no one heard a gunshot. In a news release the department said it did not appear the school was the target of a shooting.
“Evidence gathered at the scene leads police to believe the bullet was a 'stray' bullet from a hunting-type rifle and fired from a considerable distance away,” the release reads, in part.
Police said their investigation continues.
