APD on scene Fort River School 11:45 ish
I was on my way to Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown to pick up documents relating to a very scary story from last weekend when I first heard the call and knew simply because Dispatch was addressing it to multiple patrol units and the shift supervisor (X1) that it was not going to be a routine event.
Fort River Elementary School went into "shelter in place" mode due to reports of an intruder. Although the original call did mention a possible weapon involved I chose not to report that. And I used the slightly less scary term "lockdown" in my original Tweet/Facebook post.
When I arrived on the scene about 5 minutes later three APD cruisers were scattered about the area but two school employees were out front doing routine lawn maintenance. So far so good.
Since the school was locked down officers were having trouble getting in, as apparently a key fob was not working properly. At one point an officer told Dispatch that if school officials did not come to open the door they would have to "breach it." That too I chose not to report.
Fortunately a moment later someone opened the door for them.
Within minutes APD had answered my original Tweet saying no intruder found.
@amherstac no intruder at this time found at fort river school
— AmherstMApolice (@AmherstMApolice) October 9, 2015
Follow @AmherstMApolice on Twitter to stay informed
I had gone from Twitter over to Facebook to file a quick report and then got distracted by questions and comments, so I did not see the original APD response tweet to me for a few minutes.
But by then I had already figured out things were under control and stated that fairly quickly in a follow up post.
As I was leaving the scene I saw Chief Livingstone coming out the main entry and he confirmed "Everything is fine." And that was one statement I was happy to post on Facebook and Twitter.
By that time some of the responding units had already left Fort River School and headed to all the other schools in town just to be extra safe.
School Superintendent Maria Geryk, within 45 minutes of the original start of the incident, issued a robocall reassuring parents there was "no threat to the school."
Amherst officials are getting better at combining transparency with modern means of communication.
click to enlarge/read
Any further info on the what triggered it, Larry? Was it actually a swatting like APD reported or some out-of-state glitch? Kudos to APD for checking the rest of the town schools as a precaution.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it was an automated call from out of state where an incident was in the process of happening (Which hopefully turned out to be a false alarm).
ReplyDeletePerson wearing camouflage at Hamilton College- Someone at the school is the emergency contact for a student there and Fort River received the information
ReplyDeleteYou have got to be kidding -- if I had a child in that school, that child would not set foot in that school ever again. I would demand an out-of-district SPED placement and the rest.
ReplyDeleteYou honestly think this bullshite isn't going to create an entire generation with PTSD? And how many times can you cry "wolf" before people stop caring?
A college kid in Ohio wearing camouflage. I've seen worse, college kids not wearing anything at all comes to mind.
I think that the school employee should be summarily fired. Let him/her/it sue Hamilton College. That might put an end to some of this bullshite....
MR ED-
ReplyDeleteSince you don't know the facts... you point is invalid. Not everything you read in the news is accurate. "kid wearing camouflage" wouldn't necessarily trigger a response.. the rest of the report would. You sir, (and general public) will not have access to the additional info. So get off your high pony, and realize there is more than meets the eye. Public safety release limited info.
Good day sir.
Ed get, real. Society is run for the benefit of the overseers coworkers, aka government employees. The kids and their mental state is just another price we pay to make fake jobs for the unskilled. In 50 years we have had more tech advancement than ever and we went from one wage earner to needing more than two. This is the cost of job welfare for government employees, we don't need all the stuff larry and the soccer moms always demand, they just want it and now everyone works all the time and neglects their kids for it....all to susidize those that were afraid of real private sector jobs. If the parents and the cops are willing to sacrifice their kids and lives for this....the joke is on them....no one will care for them when they are old, likely not even the government they worship, certainly not the kids they farmed off to this school so they could go get rich.
ReplyDeleteYes General Westmoreland, we will blindly believe you.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't believe there was a "rest of the report" nor any legitimate reason not to have released it had there been -- not after the fact.
Are you familiar with the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident where the general public wasn't told that the suspected NVA torpodeos were actually the ship's own rudder?
Yes, there is more than meets the eye -- police chiefs attempting to build their budgets comes to mind... So put up or shut up...
BTW -- anyone with a badge is LEGALLY REQUIRED to use the "Dr." as it was issued in the name of the Commonwealth.
Robo calls are confusing and can be quite unnerving- When Maria called about the bus/toddler incident years ago- The initial greeting and the way the information was worded- I initially thought it was a live call and my child was responsible for doing something.
ReplyDeleteDoe the employee have a cell phone to list as the emergency contact number to avoid this in the future?
A Rhode Island elementary school reacted to the Hamilton robo call too.
ReplyDeleteHamilton needs to correct this issue!
BTW Dr Ed- Hamilton is in New York State
(Rhode Island initially thought the call was from TX)
http://patch.com/rhode-island/coventry/college-shooting-texas-causes-ri-school-go-lockdown-0
The kids and their mental state is just another price we pay to make fake jobs for the unskilled
ReplyDeleteAnd if you drive all the children crazy, you won't have to teach them.
A deliberate plot on the part of Team Maria?
And one other thing -- let's say there really was a legitimate problem in Ohio.
Nothing short of supersonic military aircraft could possibly transport a perp from there to Amherst before school had already been dismissed for the day.
So it doesn't much matter what was happening out there. And Maria's minions aren't bright enough to tell the difference between a robocall about something happening out there and a real threatening phone call? Someone should be fired for that, too.
Then you get some scared/intrepid 5th Grader who blindsides a plainclothed cop with a brick to the back of the head and you have a dead cop killed in what is the ultimate "friendly fire" incident. After all, you tell a child that there is an adult in the school whom he doesn't know, and that he is to presume that this adult intends to kill him and all his friends, it is perfectly legitimate for the child to kill the purported perp first. I'd have done it.
Hence you have a cop desperately trying to protect the children killed by a child desperately trying to protect himself -- from a nonexistent threat. Good job....
What are we learning? First this system of locking the doors prevents police from getting into a building. It's a great way for a crazy person to get into a school, guaranteeing him time to carry out whatever he wants to because the "key" to get in didn't work. Second, instead of sheltering the children who were outside at the time away from the building, they were brought inside, which had there been someone with a weapon, the children would have been sitting ducks. Third, this unnecessary sky is falling routine does nothing but damage the children. You'd have a better chance of getting struck by lightning TWICE, and run over and killed by a car before you'd have to worry about someone invading your school and killing or injuring your children. Once again the fear mongers and PC police are victorious in creating scenarios that don't exist.
ReplyDeleteIf in fact there were kids outside of the building the moment the shelter in place was called, it does seems odd that they would be brought back inside or even be able gain entry to the building after that time.
ReplyDeleteSocialism is quite expensive, it costs far more than money, it costs everything.
ReplyDeleteGo back to denying this, talking about how we need to replace basic rights with sexual rights and never-ending public funding. Go on pretending that the schools or the cops matter at all unless you work there.
Walter is right here, and I will go further -- your child is more likely to be killed by a bullet accidentally fired by an APD officer than by some phantom shooter. And the odds of an APD officer accidentally discharging his/her/its weapon inside a school are so incredibly small that no one worries about it.
ReplyDeleteNow you routinely terrify the children, tell them to expect some man coming in the school to kill them, and not only are you going to have paranoia and PTSD but I can see the brick to the back of the head happening. The only advantage a child has is surprise, and the officer -- not knowing that the child thinks he's the gunman -- isn't going to have any idea that the child is waiting for an opportune time to attack. Same thing for the school psychologist - non-SPED kids aren't going to have any idea who he is, he definitely isn't wearing a uniform, and most psychologists are so arrogant and so lacking in empathy (as well as clueless) that he aren't going to realize that the child sees them as a threat.
This is like the "Duck & Cover" drills of the 1950s -- that would have done a lot of good when you realize that the flash would have incinerated everyone already, and never forget that these children became the anti-war activists of the late 1960s (and greying hippies of today). The children being subjected to the paranoia of today will be similarly affected, and we shouldn't expect a similar rejection of this when they get older?
If in fact there were kids outside of the building the moment the shelter in place was called, it does seems odd that they would be brought back inside or even be able gain entry to the building after that time.
ReplyDeleteI agree -- if I were the teacher outside and I thought thus was for real, we'd all just disappear, we would just vanish. And when it was all over, when I was convinced it was all over, only then would we be found. If I thought this was for real, we'd leave the area, we would do it very quickly, and I really wouldn't much care what was necessary to accomplish that.
That's why you don't play games with this sort of thing.
It's like the identity theft industry. A few folks make a lot of money off people and thrive off ignorance and fear of the unknown. The reality is it's all useless. A gunman could kill more than 25 students and teachers simply by walking to the back of the school and shooting through the window of just one classroom. Or he simply has t press the doorbell in front and he'd be let in. Even better, he simply has to knock on the Kindergarten door in the back and he'd be let in. Another waste of money. More disruptions, and more scared children.
ReplyDeleteJust how many people out there have access to that police radio frequency like Larry. Shouldn't the radio's have a jamming device that keeps even "Larry" from eavesdropping or is he really employed by the police?
ReplyDeleteAnyone can access the police and fire radio frequencies. Even you, Anon 7:13
DeleteThey do use their cell phones a lot.
ReplyDeleteWhich, unfortunately, I can't monitor.
The NSA on the other hand ..
and a high school in another area of NY state got the robo call from Hamilton as well:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/News10NBC/posts/10153360611259215
"Sheriff's deputies are on the scene of Penfield High School for an investigation. We're told an automated robocall about a situation at Hamilton College prompted the situation. Students weren't at school on Friday for a scheduled staff conference day."
A comment on the page gives more info on the incident that triggered all the confusion...
We had a possible shooter on campus yesterday. It ended up being a poor decision made by a student to dress in all camouflage carrying a nerf gun on a sling. Some students were playing a game that they created years ago called "humans vs zombies" and it entails shooting other game players with nerf guns and hiding and seeking. However after the phone call yesterday for "person dressed in all camo with what appeared to be a gun sling the game has been banned for good.
At a then-sane university in a more sane era, there was a game called "assassin" where you had to leave a warning note, and someone delivered the note to the wrong girl. A girl who just happened to be the daughter of a high ranking military officer...
ReplyDeleteIt was dealt with -- and the next week, people were told why the game was being banned on campus. Everything but the name of the girl was told.
And there was none of this lockdown hysteria either.
-A gunman could kill more than 25 students and teachers simply by walking to the back of the school and shooting through the window of just one classroom.
ReplyDelete72 children on a school bus...
Lemme guess: the schools are gun-free zones. Again I say the this is like honey to the bee for a sicko who wants to achieve infamy. Who among us would put a sign on their home reading "Gun-Free Zone"? You may as well change the wording to read "Self Protection-Free Zone."
ReplyDeleteCan you update us Larry~What exactly did happen? Story is-- an employee in Ft. River was an emergency contact and received--what? What kind of phone call and exactly from who? Did the employee answer the call? Did the office make the decision to lock down? Where is the principal in all of this?
ReplyDeleteWho exactly was it who decided to put the school in lock down? or shelter in place--and what idiot of an adult brought the children back into a locked building--I don't get that? Who is training these people?? and to do what?? put our children closer to harm's way? Once the employee who made this call (to lock down) is found out--is s/he still working there? How emabarassing it is for the police to get there and not be able to get in?? Why don't they have keys to all the schools?? good god! How safe are we left to feel? What a freaken' circus! Who knows details of how the children reacted? How scared were they left to feel?...man...and we pay how much for this sytem to be led???
Some kid musta had a oretzel that looked like a gun. When pretzels are outlawed, only outlaws will have pretzels.
Delete