Lockdown lifted at Brandeis High School after reports of a gun on Upper West Side campus
UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- A lockdown at a school campus on the Upper West Side Thursday was lifted after a report of a gun was deemed to be unfounded.
But the drama that unfolded at the Brandeis High School campus, which houses several elementary and high schools, will not soon be forgotten by teachers, students or their parents.
The NYPD says an anonymous person made a 911 call around 9:40 a.m. on Thursday reporting there was a person with a gun inside the school's campus.
The call resulted in heavily armed officers responding to the school to search for a possible gunman.
Students hid under their desks as officers entered classrooms and anxious parents huddled outside, glued to their phones.
Police say students were also confined to the gym.
The school was placed on lockdown as police tried to determine if the report of a gun was credible or not.
One student who did not make it into school described the panic to Eyewitness News.
"I got messages from my friends saying there was a lockdown, and that apparently someone brought a gun in an unspecified bathroom, and so the police started coming trying to find who that person was," the student said. "And my brother says right now they are all in the gym, and they are all stuck in there right now and just waiting for any news about anything."
Parents rushed to the campus, anxiously waiting for more information, some waiting over an hour to understand what was going on.
For many parents, their only line of communication was to reach their kids through their cell phones.
"I've been told by my son that the police are now in the classroom where he was hiding. He says they are still in the room. He says this is crazy, he was terrified and this shouldn't happen in this country," one mother said. "I won't feel 100% better until I get to hug him and know he's out of there and that his mental health will be OK after this."
Police sources eventually determined the report was not credible, and the lockdown was lifted.
But concern and - among some parents, at least - anger, remained.
"If we can't keep our children safe in our classrooms, why would you take away their one lifeline in a case like this? Literally we wouldn't know nothing," said Jamilah Clark, one student's aunt.
Clark referred to the ongoing conversation about restricting student cell phone use in city schools, something the chancellor has thrown his support behind, even though there is no official mandate yet from the Department of Education.
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