On Tuesday, Oct. 24, a faculty member accidentally activated the old security system, Volo, subsequently sending out texts and emails to faculty alerting them of an “active shooter”. Because Volo was an old security system, most faculty were unaware of the notification which was only sent through email.
Volo, the previous security system, was replaced by Intrado (the current security system) around two years ago. Because of this, when Volo was accidentally activated, only emails were sent.
“That isn’t the way we get notified. In fact, that’s not even how the old system worked when it was the main thing,” Matt Doherty, music teacher and assistant activities director said.
Normally, emails, texts and alarms would be sent to every faculty’s devices. Additionally, local and surrounding district police would immediately be alerted and make their way to the activation point of the security system.
Instead of a school-wide alarm, there was little attention given to the “active shooter” alert. New teachers do not even have the old system in their computers and phones, meaning they did not get any notifications. As a result, most classes continued normally.
However, some faculty members did see the email sent out, but were confused. Doherty and Dave Nommensen, fine arts chair, received the notification during band class.
“I was on the podium about to conduct something. Then, Mr. Nommensen… said, ‘Hey… check your phone.’ I checked my phone… there was a text and saw it was an email. That’s not how our alert system works. I knew something was weird… it was from the old system,” Doherty said.
Regardless of the confusion, Doherty and Nommensen treated the alert as a real warning.
“My instinct was that it was a false alarm but my other instinct was, ‘what if it’s not?’” Doherty said.
Doherty and Nommenson stayed as calm as possible and went into hard lockdown procedure.
“Doherty… sprinted to turn off the lights, locked all the doors, told everybody to be quiet, and then we all went… completely silent,” senior Emily Hunnewell said.
Even though this was a false alarm, for students, the experience felt very real.
“We are all friends, we’re all a family,” Hunnewell said. “So everybody put their arms around each other and was like, ‘what’s going on, what’s going on, what’s going on’… People started crying… it was pitch black.”
Not only was this frightening in the moment, students continued to feel the repercussions even after the fact it was a false alarm.
“I actually had a dream last night that I was in a school shooting because of that moment. It’s definitely had a lasting impact for sure,” Hunnewell said.
After the nerve-wracking experience, band students were able to find comfort in the response of their teachers.
“I am so comforted with the way Doherty handled it because he reacted so immediately, in such a calm way and such an effective way,” Hunnewell said.
Visit the Tom-Tom to learn more about proper hard lockdown procedure and how it will be initiated.
