By Cate Casparius ’19

Norwalk High School experienced an early dismissal yesterday, Feb. 20, at 1:30 p.m. after being under “shelter alert” for a few hours due to a suspicious tip reported by a student to school officers.

The claim was reported to the police around 10:43 a.m. saying that the student believed they heard someone pulling the slide back on a handgun in the boys bathroom earlier that morning, however, no threats were made and a weapon was never actually seen.

A school officer and an extra duty officer immediately searched the bathroom and surrounding area. No weapon was found. The school was then put under a “Protect-In-Place” status keeping students in classrooms and denying anyone from entering or exiting the building.

“It’s just really scary being under this lockdown-like event not knowing why and for how long,” Norwalk High student, Claire McKinnon said. “I also had to leave all my stuff at school because they wanted to search everything after we left.”

After the early dismissal the Stamford Police Bomb Squad K9 Unit assisted in a search throughout the school. Norwalk Police reported that no guns were found and no arrests were made. chool is projected to start on time on Feb. 21 and continue as a normal school day.

Photo used under the Creative Commons License.