Incident on West High grounds prompts school lockdown
Sep. 20—MANKATO — Police and medical crews responded to an injured student in the overflow parking lot by the Mankato West High School baseball fields Tuesday — an incident that resulted in the school being placed in a lockdown.
The lockdown was lifted Tuesday afternoon following the transport of an unidentified person to the Mankato hospital.
The Mankato Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to questions from The Free Press about the nature of the incident, including reports circulating in the community that the injured person suffered a gunshot wound.
News of the incident initially came via an email to West High School parents from Principal Sherri Blasing at 12:30 p.m.
"Due (to) a medical emergency in the parking lot by the baseball field, West High School is on a soft lockdown," Blasing wrote. "This means school is continuing as normal within the building, but students are staying here at West until we receive an all clear from public safety. Thank you for your understanding."
About 50 minutes later, Superintendent Paul Peterson sent a broader email related to a situation "involving a student resulting in emergency medical services and Mankato Public Safety being called. So public safety and medical personnel can provide medical services, the school has been placed on a soft lockdown. We do not believe there are any safety concerns to students and staff at West.
The school will remain in a soft lockdown until public safety clears the scene."
At 1:37 p.m., the Department of Public Safety issued a news release that contained no additional information beyond the address of the parking lot and that "the individual was transported to the local hospital by ambulance."
