'All of the children are safe.' What led to the lockdown at Gananda Middle School on Friday?
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office says a false 911 report led to a lockdown at the Gananda Middle School Friday morning.
Wayne County Sheriff Robert Milby on Friday said deputies received a call and several text messages via 911 from inside the school referencing a kidnapping in progress and a person with a gun inside the building shortly before 11 a.m. Friday. The school went into a lockdown while officers from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, New York State Police and Macedon Police Department rushed to the scene.
Frantic parents began to gather outside the school after district officials sent a text message around 11:15 a.m., informing them of a lockdown at the school and a lockout at the nearby high school, located several blocks south of the middle school.
"All of the children are safe," Milby said at a news conference outside the school shortly after noon.
Police searched the building and determined there was no credible threat and that nobody had been injured, he said. School officials canceled classes for the remainder of the day and began releasing children to their families shortly before 1 p.m.
Gananda Middle School, which houses students in sixth through eighth grades, is located on Dayspring Ridge in the Town of Walworth, Wayne County.
Milby declined to share further details about who was involved in the "false call," stating that the investigation is "still fresh."
Heightened fears after recent incidents
Friday's lockdown came amid heightened fears in the wake of a recent school shooting in Texas and a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo.
It also came just ten days after another incident prompted a lockdown at Gananda schools and ended with a student under arrest.
A 17-year-old Gananda High School student faces felony charges after allegedly posting a picture on social media that displayed what appeared to be an assault weapon, according to New York State Police.
That incident occurred one day after 19 students and two teachers were shot to death inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
On May 25, Macedon Police notified troopers of the social media post, in which the teen posed with what appeared to be an assault weapon, according to State Police. The post "caused concerns to district officials who immediately contacted law enforcement," according to State Police.
Gananda Central School District Superintendent Shawn Van Scoy in a letter to parents, said that while he could not share specific details about the teen or the investigation, it appeared to be an isolated incident.
Several people alerted staff members to the post, and the incident led to a lockout at all district schools that afternoon, Van Scoy said. Within minutes, troopers, Wayne County sheriff's deputies and Macedon police officers met with Gananda school officials at the high school.
The involved teen was taken into custody off school grounds and interviewed in the presence of a parent, troopers said. The student, whose name was not released, was charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony. The teen was arraigned that night and is scheduled to return to court on Friday.
"We are no longer in a world where we can sit back on these threats or ignore them as jokes," Van Scoy said in the letter. "We have to be diligent. We need everyone’s eyes and ears. If you see something, say something."
Contact staff reporter Sean Lahman at slahman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @seanlahman.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: What led to the lockdown at Gananda Middle School on Friday?
