Anonymous caller claims gun in school bathroom stall; MCCSC orders districtwide ‘soft lockdown’

This afternoon (Jan. 22), Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) put all of its schools on a lockdown, responding to a school shooting threat.

According to a video statement from MCCSC superintendent Markay Winston, as well as law enforcement scanner traffic, the Bloomington police department (BPD) received an anonymous phone call from somebody claiming to be inside a school bathroom stall with a gun. No school was specified. The caller, described by officers on scanner traffic as a male with a muffled voice, “indicated in the call to the Bloomington police department that they were going to shoot up the school,” Winston said in the video.

Winston said, “We were able to confirm no credible threat. The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff was never in question in any of our schools.”

At 12:55 p.m., MCCSC’s school resources officers (SROs) could be heard on scanner traffic reporting the call. Winston said that BPD contacted MCCSC chief of police Troy Thomas. Shortly after 1 p.m., officers were notifying schools and district staff members. Thomas coordinated with MCCSC’s other SROs to conduct checks on all schools.

All MCCSC schools were placed on a “soft lockdown” at around 1:20 p.m. Over radio traffic, Thomas said a “soft lockdown” means “no movement in the hallways or outside the classrooms.” Elementary students outside for recess moved inside, for example.

SROs were instructed to check the interior and exterior of each building while on lockdown. Once a building was cleared, the lockdown was lifted by the superintendent’s office. Middle and high schools were prioritized—their school days end between 2:20 and 3:05 p.m. Families at those schools were sent a statement about the incident via the district’s ParentSquare platform at 2:33 p.m. (The same statement was released to the media at 3:27 p.m.)

After that, elementary schools were swept—the last school was cleared around 3:20 p.m. MCCSC secured all of its 23 school buildings within about two and a half hours, including the Broadview Adult Learning Center and the Early Learning Center.

“We took the time that was necessary to be able to confirm that there was no threat,” Winston said in the video. She also said that while trying to notify the community as quickly as possible, the district’s messaging platform server wasn’t functioning correctly. “Some of our messages were delayed,” she said.