Tuesday fire drill at Cony High School unrelated to 10 school lockdowns
By Saber Hanington
Ten high schools in Maine went into lockdown on Tuesday in response to false reports of active shooters and shooting threats. Students at Cony High School also evacuated in response to a fire alarm, which school officials said was part of a planned drill and not connected to the statewide hoax.
The first false active shooter call came from Sanford High School, where someone who claimed to be a teacher called 911 saying that there was an active shooter inside the school.The threats were deemed a hoax, according to the Portland Press Herald (https://www.pressherald.com/2022/11/15/police-respond-to-reported-threats-at-local-high-schools/) False calls were also called into high schools in Fort Fairfield, Houlton, Ellsworth, Winslow, Gardiner, Rockland, Wiscasset, Brunswick, Portland, and Sanford.
The fire alarm went off and students evacuated at Cony just as students were seeing the first reports of a possible gunman at Sanford High School. Mr. Cooper, head of security at Cony, said that there was no connection between the lockdowns at the other schools and the fire drill at Cony. Cooper said that he was not aware of the events taking place in Sanford during the fire drill.
Principal Silsby also says that there was no connection between the two events, and that the fire drill was pre scheduled at the beginning of the week. Silsby also said, “I received a text about a possible threat in Portland schools and started working with our School Resource Officer immediately at the same time that the fire drill was going on. Our School Resource Officer immediately connected with the Augusta Police Department.”
Cony students and staff stood in the parking lot for a few minutes and then returned to their 2nd period classes.
Nearby Gardiner High School was among the schools to go into lockdown because of the hoax calls.
Maine State Police confirmed that all the calls were false reports, according to news reports.
“I had no idea until after the fire drill, I was obviously feeling concerned and worried for the students (in Sanford.) After finding out it was a hoax I felt relieved,” said Lucas Wheeler, a senior at Cony High School.