Wake schools reviewing communication to parents, students during lockdown at Ligon Middle

Wake County Public School officials are reviewing the steps administrators took to notify parents of a lockdown at Ligon Middle School while police searched for an active shooter on the streets surrounding the campus.

At 6:53 a.m. on Monday, a teacher called 911 from inside her classroom to alert dispatchers of a man with a gun on Tipton Street.

“He’s pointing a gun at teachers’ cars,” the woman said.

Dispatchers received 10 more calls from 6:58 a.m. to 7:04 a.m.

“There was a guy who shot at my car as I was driving by,” said another 911 caller.

At 7 a.m., administrators put Ligon Middle School on Code Yellow lockdown. At the same time, parents and school bus drivers were dropping off students at school.

A Code Yellow — or community lockdown — requires all exterior doors to be locked. The protocol resulted in some students, parents and staff remaining in the parking lot with very little information as officers searched for the shooter.

“Once the door is locked, you keep it locked,” said Dr. Amanda Nickerson, co-author of “Lockdown Drills” and a professor at the University of Buffalo.

“The practice is that you can’t let anybody in the building in that situation, but the people outside should know what to do to get to safety.”

When officers located the suspect on Cumberland Street nearby, Chief Estella Patterson said the man shot at officers five times. Two officers returned fire. The suspect, who has not been identified, died.

Lisa Luten, chief communication officer for Wake County Schools, said an email alert to parents was drafted by 7:20 a.m. That initial message was never sent because the threat was eliminated and the lockdown status changed, Luten said.

At 7:25 a.m., the school returned to Code Green — or all-clear status — and the students and staff outside were allowed in the building.

Luten said a second message with more information was drafted and sent to families at 7:50 a.m. — almost an hour after the lockdown went into effect and 25 minutes after the lockdown was lifted.

“Should we have sent the first message?” Luten questioned in a phone call with WRAL. “We are looking through that. We will go back and evaluate. Accuracy is more important than speed in these cases.”

Dr. Nickerson said lockdowns are dynamic and challenging situations but schools should aim to communicate a brief message to families within 10 minutes of any lockdown.

“Getting a short message out to at least let people know the basic facts of the situation and what they can do,” Nickerson said.

Luten reiterated the shooter never entered school grounds.

Any threat on campus would have triggered a Code Red lockdown which would have prompted a more immediate phone call to families, Luten said.

In a press conference on Monday, Chief Patterson described the situation as “quickly evolving” and praised officers for responding quickly and residents who reported the incident.

“To the citizens of Raleigh, your immediate calls and your continuous updates aided in our response to the scene,” said Patterson.

The two officers who fired shots at the suspect remain on administrative duty, Patterson said.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Raleigh Police Internal Affairs Unit are reviewing the case.