School locked down over shooting threat
Students searched, police stationed on grounds in response to voice mail
BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK - Days after the mass shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va., a threatening phone message left at the principal's office of North Brunswick Township High School resulted in the school going into lockdown for about four hours Wednesday morning.

According to North Brunswick Police Capt. Donald Conry, at 6:37 a.m. a member of the principal's office called police saying that "a male individual indicated he was upset and he intended to shoot up the school." Officials said the caller also claimed to have been upset with his girlfriend but did not offer more specifics about the contents of the message.

It was unknown to authorities at press time whether the caller was a student.

The Board of Education and police jointly decided to follow the protocol of a shooting situation. Police were stationed at every entrance to the school and used wands to search students as they entered. Students were held inside their homerooms, and their possessions were left in the hallways as police searched book bags, pocketbooks and lockers. Dogs were brought in to sniff for gunpowder or other dangerous materials, according to North Brunswick Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack.

The lockdown ended just before 11 a.m. and school operations returned to normal. A police presence was maintained on school grounds for the rest of the day and was planned for the rest of the week.

"Our professionals determined that our school was secure and was safe, and we resumed normal activities at the school," Womack said.

Police said the phone call came in overnight, but did not say whether the phone number was blocked. According to Lt. Joseph Battaglia, police are in the process of tracking phone records to isolate where the call came from.

Although the threat was called in before the start of school, officials decided it was safer to admit students to the building but lock it down.

"We decided to follow a shooting protocol because we didn't want students milling around or sitting on buses ... as targets," Superintendent of Schools Brian Zychowski said.

Although police said the sensitivity was heightened in light of the Virginia Tech tragedy days earlier, the officers followed normal procedures for handling a potential active shooter situation.

"Obviously with the nature of the message, and what happened at Virginia Tech, and what we've learned so far, [there were] enough parallels that everyone wanted to make sure we were very, very cautious in this situation," Womack said.

A meeting to debrief parents on the situation was scheduled for Wednesday night at the high school.