Apr. 16—Odessa High School is no longer in a lockdown after ECISD police located a student who reportedly had a weapon, but it turned out he didn’t.
According to an ECISD news release, officers were clearing the OHS campus room by room. Because the campus is so large, the release stated, it would take some time. Parents and visitors could not enter the school for security reasons.
The school sent parents information about dismissal, which was estimated to take place sometime around 4 or 4:15 p.m.
Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins said the incident began with a student reporting to the district that someone outside the school flashed a gun that put the school into a Secure, which is a precautionary measure.
“Not long after that, an updated report from a student was that the student who was seen flashing a gun was then seen going back into the school. And so that became a much more urgent situation. That becomes a lockdown and so we did lock down the school. The police called it,” Adkins said.
Adkins said the ECISD police had already responded to the Secure.
Asked if there had been an arrest, he said they are not to that point yet.
“They are still working on witness statements and trying to figure out exactly what happened from that first report all the way through to now.
“They had a good description and ID of the person that they were looking for, and within a few minutes, they did find that student inside the campus” and the boy did not have a weapon, Adkins said.
At that point, the lockdown was released.
“But undoing that on a campus the size of OHS takes quite a bit of time, so we moved to what’s called a hold, which is kids and staff stay exactly where they are. They no longer have to be in a lockdown mode with lights out and everything turned off, and you don’t move an inch, but you stay where you are in terms of whatever classroom, whatever conference room, cafeteria, whatever, you stay there until the police are able to come room by room, hallway by hallway, and make sure everything is good and clear. That all happened very quickly, changing from a Secure to a Lockdown and then to a Hold,” Adkins said.
“Our police responded quickly. We are glad that everybody is safe and that it was not an emergency situation inside the school. At this point, the investigation continues. Our officers are trying to unravel exactly what happened … based on witness reports, and that is where we are,” he added.
David Perez, an OHS freshman, got hungry so he went to get some food with his friends and watch the Arsenal-Real Madrid game.
Then he heard “a bunch of cops. And then my friends were like, hey, we’re in lockdown,” Perez said.
He and his friends thought someone was at the school with a gun and they heard that someone had shot a window.
“It was just insane,” Perez said.
Eduardo Ortiz, also a freshman, said he was going to class and had almost the same story as Perez. He was going to class and got hungry so he thought he would just watch the soccer game and play with his phone. He started hearing sirens and he got scared. He also saw the police wearing bulletproof vests.
Vilma Carrillo heard about the incident from her granddaughter and was scared. But she said her granddaughter was OK and that made her feel better.