Threat of violence, swift police response triggered anxious moments at Granite City HS

Police vehicles including a SWAT team truck and helicopters encircled Granite City High School for blocks in response to a threat of violence Wednesday morning.

Authorities later determined that the reported threat was not credible, according to Chris Mitchell, a district spokesman.

Mitchell also said only the high school has an early dismissal Wednesday. No other schools have early dismissal.

But in the wake of Monday’s shooting at a Louisville, Kentucky bank, and the March killing of six people at a Nashville, Tennessee, school, the slow trickle of information and inability to contact their children left parents in Granite City with some anxious moments outside their local high school.

“I know that mine are OK. They texted me,” Joe Clark, who has a 10th-grade son and 11th-grade daughter at GCHS, said from the parking lot Wednesday morning. “They don’t have a clue what’s going on. At least they didn’t the last time I heard from them. They’re SAT testing today. They didn’t have their phones so it took me quite a while to get a hold of them. It was very scary.

“I didn’t take a breath for about 30 minutes, it felt like, until that response text message.”

Fast police response

Granite City District 9 Superintendent Stephanie Cann said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that district officials became aware of the threat when police contacted them. Officers were at the school within minutes, she said.

Cann said six outside fire departments and other agencies offered to provide ambulances and other support before it was determined the threat was not real. She called the swift response comforting.

The superintendent deferred comment to police on the nature of the threat. Major Nick Novacich, the spokesman for the police department, could not immediately be reached for comment.

About 10:30 a.m., Community Unit District 9 issued its release stating that Granite City Police acted quickly to the threat and that students were safe. It also asked that parents not come to the school until being instructed to do so.

The release did not say that the threat was a hoax or whether anybody had been injured.

By that time, multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI, SWAT, helicopters and ambulances had surrounded the school for blocks.

Students inside the building said they saw officers in the hallways and outside the building with their guns drawn.

“They had people standing guard around classrooms. I was looking out the window and there was an FBI agent who searched one guy,” said Hayden Slay, 16. “He had a pistol on him, but they let him put it back in his bag.”

Shyann Dickson, 16, said an officer entered her classroom and told students what was happening.

“It was an interesting experience, I will admit,” she said.

Anxious moments

At 11 a.m. another statement from Cann spelled out early dismissal procedures.

Parents were to enter campus off State Street only and exit on Fehling Road. They were asked to stay in single file and not to leave their vehicles. District staff in fluorescent vests handed parents a pink form so that they could track which students had departed and which remained on campus. Parents said they were told students were held in the school’s cafeteria until a guardian had filled out their dismissal form.

Students were released slowly, about one or two at a time. Parents waited outside, some shouting for their children or waving to capture their attention. Police kept them distant from the school building.

Some parents waited in the nearby Schnucks parking lots at Madison and Nameoki.

Paul Brandt was relieved to get a text from his son saying he was OK, but did not know why the police were called. Brandt had to drive 30 minutes from his workplace in St. Louis to get to the high school before he received his son’s text.

It wasn’t just parents of students who were concerned. Denise Bennett was outside the school talking on the telephone with her daughter, a special education teacher who was inside.

“The principal told them to stay in place, to stay locked down until further notification,” Bennett said. “I said, ‘Are you scared?’ And she said, ‘Of course I’m scared, mom, but I have to hold it together for the kids.’”

“It was a lie”

Kantrell Stevenson, 15, gave some parents outside their first assurance that there hadn’t been an actual shooting. He exited the school and was greeted by his uncle, Richard Womack.

“It was a false alarm. They were fibbing. It was a lie,” he said. “That’s what I heard.”

He said no one in his classroom was scared and they continued doing their work until they were dismissed.

“We just stayed in our classroom and did our tests,” he said. “We locked the door and we stayed there until they unlocked the doors.”

Slay credited the school’s administration, namely Principal Daren DePew, for heading off a panic.

“I only worry when the principal worries and he was not worried,” the student said. “He came over the intercom and was just telling people to lock the doors. He was speaking slowly. He was calm.”

Threats across the state

School districts in other parts of Illinois were facing a similar situation as Granite City High School on Wednesday morning, according to news reports.

In Rockford, for example, police were responding to what they said appears to be a “false report” of a possible shooting at Rockford East High School.

“At this time, we are working on confirming details, but it looks to be a false report,” the department tweeted according to a report from TV station 5Chicago. “We are clearing the building as we speak and further updates will be posted.”

According to WSIL TV, there were false reports in southern Illinois school districts, including in Marion, Mount Vernon and Carbondale.

A threat against Granite City High School was posted on social media March 2, a day after a pair of fights between students in a hallway at the school.

A similar rash of threats at multiple metro-east high schools was made in September.