A Springfield high school was on lockdown Thursday. Here’s what happened
A series of fights at Lanphier High School Thursday morning created a number of headaches.
But a new badging system put in place this fall by District 186 summoned help to the scene quickly.
Here’s what happened:
Three fights
Three fights broke out at Lanphier shortly before 11:30 a.m.
Superintendent Jennifer Gill said a teacher depressed a badge with a built-in security system triggering a hard lockdown. The more times the badge is depressed, the more heightened the situation. Springfield Police got the call and responded within minutes, Gill confirmed.
More: District 186 approves $2 million security badges with emergency call buttons for staff
Centegix badges
The hard lockdown was cleared at 11:40 a.m., said Jason Wind, the district’s executive director of school support, but by 11:30 a.m. district personnel had determined it wasn’t a true hard lockdown, defined as an intruder with a weapon or someone in the building seeking to do harm.
“We deemed it wasn’t a hard lockdown scenario because staff immediately engaged with the fighters and separated them and broke that situation up,” Wind said.
Social media rumors
One of those headaches, Gill said, was addressing social media rumors which spread quickly.
There was never a weapon and no one was ever stabbed, Gill said.
“These were all things that were being said on Facebook today that were 100% untrue and then being shared rapidly by other people not involved in the situation,” she said.
“When Facebook is allowed to run rampant and people are allowed to call us liars–no, we know somebody taken out of there–we have to stand up for ourselves as a district and allow us to communicate what happened and allow us to take care of the situation.”
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Were parents and guardians notified?
Gill said the district got a message to parents and guardians that the lockdown was only momentarily.
“Our first job,” Gill said, “is to secure the site, take care of the situation at hand and make sure everybody is safe.”
What is Centegix?
School District 186 voted to approve the Centegix badging security system in February to the tune of about $2 million. Other school districts, like Jacksonville, have been using it.
Teachers and staff members have been training on it this month, Gill said.
“We’re trying to get the knack of it,” she said.
One of the advantages of the system, Gill said, is that it pinpoints where the call is in the building.
“It was an honest and thoughtful effort (by the district) to do right by the teachers and all staff members,” said Springfield Education Association President Aaron Graves. “I think they were responsive in this manner.”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Here’s why a Springfield high school was on a hard lockdown this week
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