ECTOR COUNTY, Texas —
Nimitz Middle School in Odessa went into a lockdown on Friday after a report of someone with a gun.
Police responded and found no shooter or gun, and a 7th grader was arrested for a false report.
As threats continue to circulate, there is plenty of concern for parents and kids.
They shouldn’t happen, yet, they’re keeping law enforcement busy.
“We go through and we vet these social media threats and things like this, but every now and then it puts it in the kid’s minds and then you have a student that decides that they want to do something that was reckless and silly," said Lieutenant Chancey Westfall with Ector County ISD Police.
That was the case at Nimitz Middle School.
“Within a minute or so, the entire campus was saturated with officers," Lieutenant Westfall said. "We were able to determine that there was no shots fired, there was no driving force, there was no casualties inside of the building -- at that point, we then moved into our lockdown procedures, which is a step-by-step sweep of the entire building room by room by room until we can absolutely confirm that there is no threat to the students or the public, and then after that we did a controlled release to our parents.”
Agencies who respond follow that process while also looking to protect children mentally.
“If there’s no driving force and we’re just checking these rooms, no it is not a gun's blazing situation traumatizing our students or trying to do anything like that...because the entire event is already scary because they don’t know – same as our parents who are responding -- they don’t know that this was a hoax and a false alarm caused by an individual," Lieutenant Westfall said. "They’re coming into a scene and...to them it is a very traumatic and real thing.”
When it comes to parents responding, Lieutenant Westfall said the scene they created outside Nimitz caused more resources to manage them.
“We will provide guidance, we will send out messages, we will tell you – if say, for example, we have to do a reunification – we will deliver all that information on where you’re going to be able to pick up your kid and the circumstances around that," Lieutenant Westfall said. "We are going to be as transparent as we can be based on the timeline that we’re given and the nature of the emergency we’re dealing with.”
With almost 34,000 students in Ector County ISD, its police department believes in its ability to protect.
“I believe that we are prepared and ready to deal with any threat that comes and faces our students, and we’re going to handle the situation," Lieutenant Westfall said.
ECISD told parents on Sunday that new school threats circulating for this week have been sent to state and federal authorities to help in the investigation.
The district added that officers from all agencies will be more visible in the coming days.