The call came in to the Lakeland Police Department just before 11:30 Tuesday morning, saying there was an imminent threat of violence at George Jenkins High School. Students scrambled for cover in closets and hardened classroom corners and started sending panic-inducing text messages to their parents.
“The Polk County Sheriff’s Office Safe Schools Division was immediately notified, as well as PCSO patrol units, who responded in emergency mode,” said PCSO spokeswoman Carrie Hortsman. “The school was placed on lockdown and thoroughly searched. Nothing nefarious was found. The lockdown was lifted at 12:14 p.m.”
Hortsman followed up to clarify that it was a “SWATTING call,” a false report that could bring out the PCSO SWAT team. Deputies responded in flak vests and helmets, sweeping through the hallways behind riot shields.
Those 45 minutes left some parents nauseous and crying as they waited to see if there was a gunman on campus and if their child’s life was at risk. Or if it was a student pulling a prank, not wanting to take a test or hoping to leave early — or maybe wanting attention.
Calling in false threats is a felony
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said his department will find whoever called in the false report, and they will get some attention.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — words matter. We take school security very seriously here in Polk and throughout the state,” Judd said. “Just yesterday we criminally charged a teenager who threatened another teenager via social media private message that he was going to come shoot him. If you call in a threat, or make an online threat, we will use all of our investigative tools to identify you and make sure you are appropriately charged. Don’t make a mistake that can affect the rest of your life.”
Hortsman said they arrested a 14-year-old Lakeland High School student on Monday after they say he threatened to kill a student at another school. The 14-year-old boy is now charged with the second-degree felony of making a written threat to kill someone.
Polk County Public Schools also sent out messages Tuesday, including when the lockdown was over.
“All students and staff are safe,” the message stated. “The campus went on lockdown today in response to a threatening phone call. Law enforcement has investigated this incident and is on scene. The campus is safe and has been cleared to resume normal operations. This message is just to keep you informed. Thank you.”
Polk County Public Schools don’t make lockdown alerts public, but do send emails and text messages to parents to alert them. They also don’t want copycat threats.
Drills and shooting fears have taken a toll
Psychologists say that lockdown drills and false alarms have taken a mental toll on children, parents and educators.
According to a report by the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, approximately 150 students and educators have been killed since the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, with more than 300 injured. In addition, more than 236,000 students have been exposed to gun violence in schools.
“One response to the increase in violence in schools has been implementing active shooter drills (often referred to as “lockdown drills”),” the report states. “These drills are meant to help students and teachers practice quickly locking the door and windows/blinds, finding cover in a classroom, remaining quiet and, in some instances, teaching students and educators how to create barricades, evacuate the school, and actively resist a shooter. The exact nature of these drills vary, but some are so realistic they involve a simulated shooter who ‘stalks the hall, checking classroom doors, listening for any noise that may indicate the presence of students.’”
Judd helped to write legislation that passed in 2018 following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The legislation includes providing armed guardians or sheriff’s deputies in every school, hardening security on all campuses, including fencing them off and having a door buzzer system to get into the office, and removing guns from the homes of individuals being investigated as a threat.
Berney Wilkinson, a psychologist who formerly worked in Polk County Public Schools, says the lockdowns are having two effects on students: They either create high anxiety in some or students stop caring.
“You end up having those students who become increasingly more anxious. I have a number of patients and students that I’ve worked with who — especially young, really young kids or those who are highly anxious — where they … almost get to the point where they just start refusing to go to school, because they’re so anxious that it’s going to happen,” Wilinson said. “The other side, I think, or the other direction is students become almost apathetic to it. You know, they, they laugh. Teachers will talk about students who just laugh and play around because there have been so many drills and so many, you know, like you say false alarms.”
Wilkinson said that for teachers it can also be highly anxiety-ridden.
“Here we are, expecting and almost demanding teachers to remain calm and keep a classroom of 30 students calm during what could be this life-threatening situation,” Wilkinson said.
He added that many teachers have had what’s known as Adverse Childhood Experiences and these lockdowns and drills bring back memories of some of those events — things like witnessing violence in their home growing up or being physically and/or sexually abused.
“We have teachers who have high ACEs scores, who have serious histories of trauma, that are maybe just as triggered by it as students and you know, it’s really difficult,” Wilkinson said. “I know teachers who struggle with every practice lockdown, every real lockdown, but the idea of a lockdown is traumatic.”
Richard Marshall, a psychologist who treats young people, said children from urban areas are more susceptible to suffering long-term effects from drills and lockdowns, including developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And, he added, students and teachers who have been the victims of domestic violence are at more risk for experience negative psychological effects.
“The experience of a threat in a school is far worse in kids from inner-city schools, who see shootings, and experience shootings, witness shootings on a regular basis,” Marshall said. “These are traumatic events, where you are facing a life-threatening situation, whether it’s a bomb or a gun. That’s one of the essential criteria for making a diagnosis of PTSD is … your life was directly threatened. And even in the military. That’s one of the distinguishing factors in making the diagnosis.”
Marshall added that many special education students, particularly those with profound learning or physical disabilities, can’t process the events the way neurotypical children can.
“Kids with learning disabilities, kids with autism, kids who are vulnerable because they have motor deficits and they can’t move and get out of the way, they tend to be more susceptible to psychological damage and psychological effects,” Marshall said. “We always think of schools as being a safe place and now they’re not as safe as we once thought they were.”
Many students feel ‘scared and hopeless.’ So do many parents.
Marshall said there are not a lot of studies on the psychological effects of lockdowns from false alarms, but there are a number on active shooter drills.
A July 2020 study published by the Journal of Adolescent Health showed that more than 60% of the 815 youths surveyed, ages 14- to 24-years-old, said that active-shooter drills make them feel “scared and hopeless,” although 56% acknowledged that the drills teach them what to do.
“What the existing literature suggests is that the threat of crisis events can negatively affect children’s anxiety levels,” the study reported.
According to a 2023 NPR/Ipsos poll, 54% of the 528 K-12 parents prefer schools prioritize investing in social and emotional interventions over security measures.
On Wednesday, there was another lockdown — this time at Traviss Technical College after a woman trespassed and wouldn’t leave campus. Marji Lowe posted in the Facebook group “We Live in Lakeland & I Have Questions” about this week’s lockdowns.
“I have one child at George Jenkins, one at Traviss … these threats are really scary,” she wrote. “Not just like … spiders scary … like will we see our children again, will they live through this, SCARY. And then the kids are completely freaked out, and have to return to the school next day. The stress level is off the charts. God help us all,” Lowe wrote. She gave LkldNow permission to use her comment.
What students face
During Tuesday’s lockdown George Jenkins students were texting messages to their parents, telling them about the lockdown and that they loved them — in case the threat was real. Two girls, who were not in their classroom when the lockdown went into effect, were stuck in a hallway and wound up being frisked by armed deputies.
One of them, senior Alyssa Mitchell, posted on Instagram: “if I had a penny for every time I was held at gunpoint by a cop during a school lockdown I’d have two pennies, WHICH ISN’T A LOT BUT F—ING WEIRD IT HAPPENED TWICE.”
In an interview with LkldNow, she said she had finished her classwork and gone to use the bathroom. She heard that there was an announcement over the loudspeaker, but she couldn’t understand what they were saying because there’s no speaker in or near that bathroom.
“I continued to head back to class. I’m halfway to the classroom door and see a girl run past me I had recognized from the bathroom,” Mitchell said. “She told me that there was a lockdown and (it) was not a drill, so I ran the rest of the way to the (classroom) door. After continuous knocking I got no response and they would not let me in as they were following the lockdown procedures. I was horrified, I didn’t know if I was knocking too loud and a shooter would come around the corner.”
She and the other girl, who was also locked out of her classroom, decided to go back to the girl’s bathroom, where they hid until they heard law enforcement talking.
“We kinda poke our heads out and there were about four cops with assault rifles and a ballistic shield. They saw us and raised up their guns almost all the way, somewhat pointing it at us,” Mitchell said. “They search us for any weapons and tell us to keep hiding in the bathroom until further notice and to lock the door. Me and the girl were freaking out, I was an absolute wreck because this was not my first time. They come back and unlock the door and put us in the teachers bathroom with two other girls they found in the down stairs bathrooms.”
She said about 30 minutes later, they got the all-clear and returned to their classrooms.
“It’s crazy how you can be having a normal day so far then something like this happens to you,” Mitchell said. “And you’d think you’d be safe and secure in your school, a place where you go to learn and prepare for your future … not to possibly get shot up along the way.”
The trespasser at Traviss was arrested. Alicia Nicole Cardoza, 47, is charged with trespassing within a school safety zone and refusing to leave, and disrupting a school function. Both are misdemeanors.
Whoever SWATTED George Jenkins High School on Tuesday has not been arrested yet, but the matter continues to be investigated.
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