Lake Oswego School District Superintendent Jennifer Schiele recently provided more details on the unintended lockdown that occurred on Tuesday, May 13 at Lakeridge Middle School. 

“Although the lockdown message was triggered accidentally and there was never an actual threat, the fear and distress experience on the campus was very real for our students and for our staff and and for the parents who weren’t there but did hear about it, and I want to thank our students, staff and all the parents for speaking up, holding us accountable and urging us to reflect and improve our practices,”  Schiele said during the Monday, May 26 school board meeting.

The lockdown message, which states “Lockdown. Lights, locks, out of sight. Lockdown. Lights, locks, out of sight,” started at 12:26 p.m. during a passing period before the first lunch or advisory block at LMS.

The message was triggered by a student’s backpack accidentally bumping a phone at the front of the school that can access the lockdown emergency system. 

After the message played twice, school administrators made an announcement that the messages were a false alarm. However, because many students were in hallways or common spaces, they couldn’t hear the message or were by that point barred from entering classrooms. In places like the commons, where theater teacher Franklin Dunwoody helped students lockdown behind the stage in a secure area, directions seemed unclear.   

“This was one of our lessons,” said Schiele. “Teachers followed our established lockdown protocol, sweeping the hallway and then locking their classroom door and not reopening them, which is our protocol. These actions are meant to protect the students and staff, but we recognize how isolating and frightening that would be to be on the outside of the lock.” 

A message to Lakeridge families didn’t go out until an hour after the lunchtime incident, adding  additional confusion and uncertainty for middle schoolers’ families. 

“We worked with LOPD and immediately launched a comprehensive review, including interviewing staff, students, families,” said Schiele. “We reviewed all the video footage and a technical diagnostic was done on our intercom system, as well as the phone that was bumped.” 

School staff members underwent a fresh round of training  on the lockdown protocols, which gave them the opportunity to ask questions about chain of command when an event occurs during a passing period or when leadership is out of the building. 

Districtwide, all schools are looking at emergency incident protocols, while also working to  improve the speed of messaging to the community and clarify chain of command at each site. 

“Obviously, our goal is not just to move on from the incident. We are learning, growing and improving, and thank God that this was not a real emergency, so that we could learn all of these questions. It really does underscore that critical importance of strong systems, timely communication and compassionate care for all of our students and staff,” said Schiele.