Dear Families:
I am writing to you as a follow-up to today’s Lockdown at Dake Junior HS and Irondequoit HS.
A lockdown button was triggered by a student at Dake at 2:22 PM. With our automatic notification now in place, the Irondequoit Police Department responded immediately. Officers worked with our district’s incident response team, quickly located the activated lockdown button and confirmed there was no threat.
During this time, we learned that a person within Dake or IHS sent a message from a mobile device stating that a student in a classroom was barricaded with a weapon. That was falsely reported. Because IPD had confirmed there was no threat, after 20 minutes they directed the buildings to move from Lockdown to Hold-in-Place, which still limits movement within the building. This was done because IPD was able to quickly identify the location of the mobile device that sent the message.
When the Hold-In-Place was lifted, students were dismissed classroom by classroom.
I want to thank IPD, the district Director of Safety and Security, Mr. Chris Shellard, district security team members and administrators for their quick action. I also want to thank our students and staff for following the Lockdown protocols we have worked on. To our students, family and staff, I know these moments are alarming but we appreciate your cooperation and patience.
In partnership,
Aaron R. Johnson, Ed.D
Superintendent of Schools
