YUMA — Three Yuma schools were placed on lockdown for just over four hours Tuesday and searched by police in response to a report of a student possibly having a gun on campus.
The report turned out to be a false alarm and no gun was actually found, according to Yuma Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Leanne Worthen.
Worthen explained officers responded to Rancho Viejo Elementary School, located at 1020 S. Avenue C, about 9:55 a.m. after a student reported to administration that she thought she saw another student with a gun.
Rancho Viejo, along with nearby Salida Del Sol and the WACOG Headstart preschool were placed on lockdown as soon as the report was made. The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office and the Yuma Sector Border Patrol also responded to the call and had units on the scene.
“This morning, school administration received a report of a possible gun on campus. School officials contacted Yuma police and followed practiced procedures of going into immediate lockdown, with the primary concern being the safety and well-being of our students and staff,” Crane School District Superintendant Bob Klee said during a press conference after the lockdown had been lifted.
“As superintendent, I’m very pleased with the response of our students and staff from both schools. They followed procedures and everything went as smoothly as possible and nobody was harmed,” Klee said.
Throughout the ordeal, parents were lined up across the street from the school on Avenue C, many of whom were visibly shaken and crying. One of those parents was Israel Rosales, who has children at both Salida Del Sol and Rancho Viejo.
“I rushed over here from my job as soon as I found out,” Rosales said. “A friend called me and told me there were a lot police cars around the school but didn’t know what was going on.”
Rosales said he planned to pull his children out of school for a few days and was not pleased with the way the schools handled the incident.
“I called the schools, but they wouldn’t release any information,” Rosales said. “It’s very frustrating. It’s like we are on the outside looking in and the only thing we can do is worry. I’m wondering what my kids are going through. I know they are scared.”
Throughout the situation, parents were encouraged to go to the cafeteria of nearby HL Suverkrup School, where Crane District officials were giving out information as it was being made available.
Meanwhile, Yuma police were doing their best to keep the parents who had gathered on scene informed, explaining to them what was happening as the schools were searched and the students evacuated.
“We know there are a lot of concerned parents. But you have to take these types of reports seriously,” Worthen said. “We had to conduct a methodical and systematic search of two schools, to make sure there wasn’t a gun.”
The lockdown was lifted first at Rancho Viejo Elementary School about 11:50 a.m. Parents were informed that school buses had been brought in and their children were being bused to HL Suverkrup, where they could be picked up.
Kimberly Grable, a parent of a sixth-grade student at Rancho Viejo, said that after receiving a notification of the incident through her phone and also via e-mail, she immediately drove to Suverkrup.
While she waited for more information at the school, she said that the waiting game was hard as the information was coming in slowly at times.
“It’s scary, just not knowing what they were doing. ... Then we heard they were going to release them class by class, which to me made sense for accountability purposes. It was hot and we were kind of getting information trickled in, but my thinking is the faculty and the teachers were focusing on the students,” Grable said. “I know there were some frustrated parents but at the same time ... I’ll stand out here for five hours in the hot sun because I know they’re taking care of the kids and making sure that they’re safe.”
She added she was very appreciative for the precautions that the schools took.
The lockdown was lifted at Salida del Sol and at the WACOG preschool shortly after 2 p.m. Students from Salida del Sol were loaded onto buses heading to Suverkrup while parents of WACOG preschool were allowed to pick their children up in front of the school.
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