Bay City ISD took to social media to post about an alleged threat at John H. Cherry Elementary Wednesday, Sept. 18.
The campus immediately went into “SECURE mode” until notified of the situation being “all clear” by the Bay City Police Department.
Per the district website, SECURE Emergency status is defined as all students and staff must be inside of the building, all interior and exterior doors are to be locked, with school and classroom activities, along with the campus schedule, continue as normal.
“If the campus administration and staff notice something outside or in the area that looks alarming, they will quickly inform their leaders and the assigned campus BCISD-PD police officer,” the website reads.
“The BCISD-PD officer and principal will initiate the secure status with a school-wide announcement, which will also alert the BCISD Police Department and BCISD Administration.
“In this case, BCISD-PD will immediately put the affected campus on a secure status until deemed all clear.
“The BCISD Communications Department will begin working on a statement to send out to parents, staff, and the community informing them of the secure status on campus and the potential threat.
“That statement will be posted to the district’s social media sites once it has been sent out to parents, staff, and families and the communications department will continue to send out updates and information to parents, staff, and families regarding the secure status as needed,” the website definition reads.
The initial Facebook post was made just after 1 p.m. with an update following at around 4 p.m. the same day.
“At approximately 12:43 pm today, the District was notified of an alleged threat to John H. Cherry Elementary,” reads the post.
“The campus immediately went into SECURE mode initiated by their campus police officer. Bay City Police Department officers were dispatched to the campus to assess the situation.”
The alleged threat has been turned over to the Bay City Police Department, and they are handling the investigation.
“Although the ‘alleged’ threat from today was determined to be false, BCISD takes all such allegations seriously, and out of an abundance of caution, the school was temporarily placed in a SECURE lockout until the District received an ‘all clear’ from police,” reads the post.
“As always, the safety of our students and staff are always our top priority.”
