Fort Hamilton High School – No Active Shooter
Fort Hamilton High School had a lockdown on Wednesday, December 13th when a female student reported that she saw a student with a gun. (The girl did the right thing whether there was a gun found or not). Story here
Sal Albanese tweeted about it because his daughter is a guidance counselor at the high school.
Initially a soft lockdown was issued in the school and then a hard lockdown was issued. The Citizen X app alerted the community.
Parents saw many police in full gear ready to take action. Kinda scary. See more pics here
No weapons or shooter were found and the lockdown was lifted. Police said the student was mistaken about seeing a gun. (source)
Some problems to note at Fort Hamilton:
- Fort Hamilton High School has to have a better procedure for alerting parents. Parents were told this was a drill. They found out from social media that there was a hard lockdown. Some students were using snapchat, instant messenger and other social media to tell their parents they were scared.
- It was said that there is not a cell phone blocker at Fort Hamilton High School. Yet, Parents weren’t able to text their children who were on lower levels. Students on the 3rd floor were able to text. It was upsetting to parents who couldn’t reach their children. It’s 2017, people need to communicate in lockdown times.
- Fort Hamilton has to have a procedure for classrooms. Students were videotaped at the windows and some were chanting to be let out. I saw two different videos of students at the windows during the lockdown. The staff needs to execute soft lockdown procedures without fail (substitutes included).
- Many saw students leave with officers. While initially this was reported as a student (possibly the shooter) being taken away in a police vehicle, I was told that this was a relative of one of the officers. I have no idea if this is true, but Fort Hamilton should look into this. No students should have left the locked down school.
- A procedure for parents coming to the school and picking up students needs to be in place. Parents in this area really care about their children and they will race to the school in an emergency. Parents were outside chanting, “Let them out.” Have a procedure to accept or hold them somewhere and update them so they aren’t chanting to let the students out (a nearby building where they can have a cup of coffee would be good).
- Around 1:30 pm, Xaverian High School sent a text to parents and asked them to check their e-mail:
- To All Members of the Xaverian Community,Earlier this morning, we were in contact with NYPD after learning of a lockdown situation that was ongoing at Fort Hamilton High School. The information that we learned was that there was allegedly an armed individual in Fort Hamilton High School. As a result, the Xaverian administration and security staff implemented heightened security protocols in and around the building as we monitored the ongoing situation. At approximately 12:30 pm, our contacts within NYPD informed us that based on their investigation, there was no threat to our students or school, and that there is no need to alter our normal school routine.
The 68th Precinct is permanently assigning a police officer to Fort Hamilton High School and Telecommunications High School for safety.
Fort Hamilton High School temporarily has a metal detector for students to pass on Thursday, but they were gone on Friday.
Hugs,
marlene
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