“There’s an active assailant in the building,” “Three freshman were seen with guns,” “Shots were fired in the building,” “There was so much screaming and running,” “Someone banged on our door,” was the information high school students and teachers got yesterday during our ‘active shooter’ lockdown. Around 3:30 PM yesterday, San Marcos High School was put under a hold. The reasons weren’t specified. Not even two minutes later, a lockdown was put into place and all students were rushed to the safest area in their classroom.
For the first 30-45 minutes, information was unclear. During situations like these, people just want to know what’s happening as fast as possible. It’s scary going from rehearsing Mean Girls music to being locked in the Choir room office with no light and no phone, especially for how long we were in there. In this situation, rumors began to spread. “There’s someone in the building that might have a weapon,” “There’s something outside of the school,” and “Stay quiet, there is a shooter in the hallway.” Messages and social media posts spread like wildfire and the rumors quickly began to evolve. “There’s an active assailant,” “He’s banging on the doors,” and “The police are chasing him,” Students began to panic. People claimed there was a knife, videos of the attacker, and videos of the high school taken from the outside allegedly “posted by the shooter.”
This morning Mrs. Guajardo came onto our announcements with a solemn tone and spoke to the half of our school that’s here today about the freakish events.
“Yesterday we experienced a lockdown event triggered by a call made to police at 3:32 p.m. The response by law enforcement was swift and professional with all safety protocols followed. Students and staff members did a tremendous job following our procedures and law enforcement direction.” In that moment, I was thankful for all those pointless-seeming lockdown drills. “Counselors are on campus in the CCMR room attached to the library to support any student or staff member who may have stress/anxiety as a result of yesterday’s event.” I walked out into the front yard and saw a lot of different things: students crying, and students making fun of those upset. Lots of “Hey mom, everything’s okay” over the phone and I’d never seen so many people outside of San Marcos High School: It really hit me then how drastic the situation could’ve been.
When I got home, my dad wouldn’t stop hugging me and my mom was teary-eyed. Later that night my parents showed me the official message sent to them after the incident. “At 3:32 p.m., The San Marcos Police Department administrative line received a call stating that they allegedly saw someone in the building with a gun.” The moment I found out there was allegedly an active assailant in the building, my stomach dropped. I didn’t have my phone, we were sitting in pitch-black silence, and the lockdown went from violence outside to violence in the building. I was relieved to read that at the end of that email, it stated, “At no point was there an armed individual or any threat present at San Marcos High School or its surrounding grounds.”
I just wonder, after all of this, how long these threats are going to stay a joke.
