At 9:48 a.m., an abrupt announcement was made throughout all of McMahon stating they would now be in “HOLD” status. This meant students, teachers, and any non-emergent personnel would have to clear the hallways and remain in their respective classrooms until the “ALL CLEAR” was given on the overhead speaker. Classes would be locked, but teaching would resume as normal.
Due to the HOLD being put in place so close to the end of the second period, students remained in their classrooms even after 10:35 a.m. Many teachers stopped teaching after the 90 minutes of class ended, but others continued their lessons.
This HOLD was originally believed to be only for a short period of time but was proved wrong when students were finally dismissed from their second period at 1 p.m. by the department they were currently within. This equates to students residing in a classroom for more than 3 hours, not knowing what was going on or when they would be released. If we add the class time to the time of the hold, this would be 4 hours within a single area.
The amount of time that passed led to students (and teachers) needing to use the bathroom, but the only solution during this time was to rely on security guards to escort them one person at a time. With so few guards, bathroom breaks were hard to come by, but we thank them for monitoring the halls and keeping us safe.
Hearing stories from various students about their experiences during their 2A block, it seems that there was a division of emotions among the student body. Some students claimed they weren’t worried at all during the hold and that their teachers either put on a movie or let them relax, while others stated that they felt a wave of anxiety and their class became chaotic quickly due to lack of activities and cell service within their location in the school.
As we talked to different students we found there were various rumors about why we were on HOLD. We can neither confirm nor dispute these rumors as at the moment this is still an ongoing investigation with the NPD as the police stated, “Police Detectives initiated an investigation to determine the source of the threat.” What we can say is the Norwalk Police Department decided to put us on HOLD in order to ensure the students were in a safe area. The Norwalk Police Department stated, “Notification was made to the Public Safety Director of Norwalk Public Schools who placed the school into hold mode as officers checked the facility.” We can see from this that there was a threat made, but they dispatched officers to verify if this was a true threat to the students and staff of BMHS.
Fortunately, there was no threat inside the building. As Ms. Wood said in the announcement, the HOLD was held due to an outside threat, and at no point was anyone in the Brien McMahon community in danger as the situation was under control by the police.
We spoke with Ms. Wood regarding this situation and she said that she understands that being in a classroom for a long time was difficult, but appreciates students’ respect and patience during this time. As quoted from her statement to families from ParentSquare, “Thank you to parents for their patience and cooperation. Finally, thank you to our students who were able to follow directions and ensure a smooth and safe transition to an early dismissal. Days such as today are why the district values the importance of drills – to prepare our school community for every scenario.”
Since the source of this threat still remains unknown, the Norwalk Police Department states “This is an ongoing investigation, and anyone with information is asked to contact the Norwalk Police Department.”
To be updated on the situation, the McMahon Archive will attempt to keep students informed.
