WSFA 12 News Montgomery, AL |Montgomery Sees Six Schools Locked Down Thursday

Montgomery Sees Six Schools Locked Down Thursday

   Thursday was a busy day for the Montgomery Public School system as lock downs became a common occurrence.

8:30am - Pintlala Elementary School officials placed students into lock down because two motorists pulled into the school's parking lot and began yelling at each other.

8:XXam - Lanier High School was on lock down for ten minutes after a security guard gave chase to a student believed to be carrying a gun. That student was later caught, but no weapon was found.

9:30am - Fews Secondary Intermediate School and E.D. Nixon Elementary School are placed on lock down after a security guard reports gunfire in the surrounding neighborhood. Fews was later taken off lock down but Nixon remained on "modified lock down" throughout the day.

2:00pm - Belingrath Junior High School went on lock down after five students fled the school and apparently broke into a nearby home.

2:15pm - Lee High School went on lock down after a threatening letter was faxed to the school.

    It turned out to be just a precaution at those five schools, but police made arrests at Bellingrath Junior High.  Police say five students left the school, broke into a vacant house and then tried to get back inside the school to avoid detection. 

   The school superintendent says the lock down avoided potentially serious problems.  "We're insuring that our students are safe when we lock a school down," says Dilworth.  Dilworth says short of locking the doors, which fire code won't allow, limiting who comes and goes is the next best thing.  "If we have to go into a lock down everyday to protect our students and our children then that's exactly what I want them to do," Dilworth says.   Montgomery Police Captain Huey Thorton says the children can't protect themselves, so they're going to do everything they can.  "We're defiantly not going to hesitate to place a school on lock down when there is a small potential of a situation getting out of control."

   The teenagers arrested at Bellingrath could be charged with a felony.  They were taken to juvenile detention.