Gilroy High School was on lock down for over three hours on
Friday, May 14 while the Central Coast Sectionals qualifiers for
the swim team were being held at San Jose’s Independence High
School.
Gilroy High School was on lock down for over three hours on Friday, May 14 while the Central Coast Sectionals qualifiers for the swim team were being held at San Jose’s Independence High School.
The school was under a lockdown because a student had called in a threat towards a teacher and the suspect was thought to have been on the school campus.
Finding out our school was under lockdown while we were in San Jose was scary, but selfishly a relief at the same time. On one hand, if the students who were on campus were really in danger, we swimmers were safe because we were not at the school. But on the other hand we had no idea what was happening at our school, where all of our friends were. I felt so helpless.
After some people got text messages about the lockdown the word spread through all the swimmers from Gilroy that something was going on back at school.
Soon we all started joking about how something “cool” like a lockdown had to happen the day we were gone and that we were missing all the excitement by not being there.
But behind the jokes and laughs all I could think about was the images of the Columbine shootings from the news. I was just hoping something as tragic as that would never happen to Gilroy High School. I got really worried and felt so out of touch with what was going on back at home. I wanted to know what was really happening at the school I have been attending for four years.
I got tired of hearing all the rumors about the incident, so I just stopped listening to people that were reporting the latest news from a new text message they had received from a friend who “had the real scoop.” I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
We heard so many rumors – everything from a teacher being held hostage by a student with a gun to a bomb threat.
Finally we started getting word that the lockdown had been lifted and everyone was going home. That made me feel a lot better to know everyone was safe and no one was hurt.
As I finally heard the real story of what happened that day through the news and the letter that was sent home to every student at Gilroy High School from the school, I thought about how stupid it was for those kids to call and threaten a teacher like they did.
This event really shows how some teenagers just don’t think about how their actions are going to affect other people. I think the kids just thought they were going to be funny and what they said wasn’t going to make a difference to anyone. They were very wrong.
They worried many parents, students, and staff. They also caused the Gilroy Police Department, California Highway patrol, and Sheriff’s Office to spend many unnecessary hours securing the area around the school and searching for a suspect that did not exist.
Thank god there were no other real major incidents in the city at that time.
I just hope those kids learn their lesson and never do anything like that again because when you threaten someone’s life it is not a joke, especially in today’s world.
On the positive side of this whole issue I’m sure the school district, staff, students, and Gilroy police have all learned something about handling these very dangerous incidents.
Even though I felt they did a wonderful job, there is always room for improvement. The experience from this incident will help in any other situations like this in the future.
