AURORA | Grandview High School was accidentally placed on lockdown Tuesday morning, according to police and district officials.
The lockdown was likely triggered by an aging security panel that tripped the system, the principal said.
“Grandview High School was inadvertently placed on lockdown this morning for a brief time after the system was triggered accidentally,” Cherry Creek School District spokesperson Lauren Snell told the Sentinel. “At no time were students and staff in any danger.”
Aurora Police Department officers responded to the scene to assess that there was no actual threat, police spokesperson Sydney Edwards said.
The district sent a message to Grandview families about the incident, which said that it would be “working to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The school district follows the standard response protocol for school security developed by the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, and the schools’ public address systems are programmed so that they can automatically broadcast video and audio messages directing students and staff to go into lockdown or another phase of the protocol.
Later on Tuesday, Grandview principal Lisa Roberts sent a follow up email to families about the incident.
“We have spent the afternoon with district security working through why it happened and what can be fixed to avoid this in the future,” she said. “We have identified the likely cause being an aging security panel that tripped the system. We will work to have this rectified as soon as possible.”
She acknowledged the stress of the situation and urged students in need of more assistance to make use of the district’s mental health resources.
“We do lockdown drills as a regular procedure twice a year, and it was clear we were trained when we went into this situation today,” Roberts said. “Our students and staff knew what to do and where to go. That doesn’t mean it didn’t affect us all and could possibly continue to do so.”
another black eye for Aurora