Booker: Students Never in Danger During School Lockdown

Officials said students were never in danger after three people rushed into a grade school Wednesday afternoon, triggering a lockdown that sent a wave of panic among parents and caregivers still anxious in the wake of the Newtown school shootings late last year.

“We will always be overly cautious, proactive and vigilant when it comes to the safety of our kids,” Mayor Cory Booker said during a press conference with police and school officials at police headquarters on Clinton Avenue.

Two men and a juvenile ran into the Louise A. Spencer School on Muhammad Ali Avenue around 2:35 pm, while classes were still in session. The door had been opened by a substitute teacher.

The three then headed straight for the principal’s office, Booker said.

The men and the youth were quickly detained by school security as the principal immediately put the school on lockdown. Newark police officers, including the Emergency Services Unit, responded and secured the school, questioning the men and conducting a search of the building. Police also reviewed security footage, Booker said.

The three males who triggered the lockdown told police they had run into the school while fleeing from two other men, Booker said. The other two men also briefly entered the school but quickly left after encountering school security guards.

None of the three were armed and they were released after police finished interviewing them.They have not been charged with a crime, Booker said.

Per procedure, students and staff remained in their classrooms throughout the lockdown until police gave the “all clear” after a little more than an hour. Officers remained at the school as students were dismissed on a staggered schedule, Booker said.

Booker said that police and school officials will review the incident but also said that all security protocols were adhered to.

“It is our understanding right now that all security procedures were followed,” Booker said, adding that police and school officials routinely conduct lockdown drills.

Booker and other officials also noted that students were texting parents throughout the incident and that a number of false rumors began to circulate, including that the lockdown at Spencer was somehow connected to a fatal shooting a few blocks from Weequahic High School that ocurred just a half-hour earlier.

Booker stressed Wednesday that the incidents were unrelated.

Ras Baraka, a member of the Newark Municipal Council and principal of Central High School, said Wednesday his school also went on lockdown as a precaution

He also said the memory of December’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut contributed to parents’ unease.