ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. – On Monday, Eastern Alamance High, Woodlawn Middle, Western Alamance High and Western Alamance Middle Schools were temporarily placed under a soft lockdown, meaning classes continued, but with heightened security and locked doors.
Schools in our area have been dealing with threats, following last week's school massacre in Santa Fe, Texas. Just last week, police swarmed the campus, as students filed out of their classrooms – following a deadly shooting. Ten people were killed, and 13 more were injured.
In the wake of that tragedy, some Alamance County parents felt a flash of terror, as schools alerted them to a number of soft lockdowns. Investigators say someone sent a text message threatening mass violence using bombs and firearms at Eastern and Western Alamance High Schools.
“It hits home pretty hard,” said Rebekah Douglas, “We talked about just last night - what would we do in a situation when we got a phone call from the school. And then to get that phone call from the school today was heart wrenching.”
Douglas's three boys all attend Western Alamance Middle School. It’s down the road from Western High, so it was one of four schools placed on soft lockdown today.
While the school system lifted those soft lockdowns, and reported no issues on any of the campuses, Douglas says the conversation around school safety has changed.
“For a parent to have to have that conversation, wear your book bag and get down so that if you get shot, they'll hit books… you should never want to have that conversation with your child,” she said.
“Until recently, we very seldom have threats of this nature,” said Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, “But it has really picked up over the last couple months”
Sheriff Johnson says these threats are connected to ones against Eastern High that came in last Friday and in late April. He says he takes all threats, seriously.
“We have to take them as credible. Because if we don't, and something happens, then that is our fault,” he said.
The Sheriff says he's dedicated a lot of manpower to this investigation - especially policing the campuses. He says Alamance County Crimestoppers is offering a thousand dollars for information leading to an arrest.
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