Parents Await Individual Release of Students at Lorbeer Middle School

The mood was mixed at Lorbeer Middle School as the line of parents awaiting the release of their children extended down Diamond Bar Boulevard, near the school's running track. 

Parent Pauline Okhuysen said the wait was long, but that the lockdown and individual release of students only to their parents was the "safest way" for the school to react to the ongoing pursuit of burglary suspects in the adjacent neighborhood.

Okhuysen said she did not receive a call directly from the school but would have liked to after the lockdown was decided. 

Okhuysen and other parents were awaiting the release of their children around 3:45 this afternoon while the school's scheduled dismissal time is 2:15 p.m.

"Cal Poly, for example, has a way to call everyone, including the staff's family, in the case of an emergency," Okhuysen said. 

Parent Anna Miller said that she heard about the lockdown from a call from her daughter around 3 p.m. 

"The school didn't call," Miller said, "but my daughter had called twice."

Administrators at the school were busy in the wake of the lockdown, signing out students one-by-one to parents as they arrived at the school.

Mack Kuykendall, who has a grandson at Lorbeer, said that he heard of the lockdown through an email from his daughter.

"When I first heard, I was worried about someone bringing a gun to school or something," Kuykendall said. 

Kuykendall was relieved to hear that was not the case, and parents joining Kuykendall were relieved that he was there as well. 

The former Chicago Cub and Los Angeles Angel handed out autographs on cards featuring a photo of him with baseball greats Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, and Willie Kirkland while on the Cubs.

"Johnny Bench was my protegé," Kuykendall told his neighbors in line, providing some distraction to the choppers hovering overhead and the line of parents that continued to grow down Diamond Bar Boulevard.