‘Vague threat’ led to lockdown of Lancaster CTC and evacuation of Willow Street campus: Police [update]

Update: Lancaster CTC closes all campuses on Friday

West Lampeter Township Police said Thursday's lockdown and evacuation of the Lancaster County Career & Technology Center campus on Willow Street was prompted by a “very general, vague threat” that had been circulating on social media for several weeks.

Meanwhile, West Lampeter police said Thursday evening that they were aware of and were investigating an apparent threat against Lampeter-Strasburg schools that was circulating on TikTok. Further information was not available as of 8:45 p.m.

A relative of a student called 911 about the threat at CTC, and police responded to an active shooter call at the school around 9:28 a.m. Although there was no evidence of a threat, the school at 1730 Hans Herr Drive was searched just to be safe.

“At this time, police do not believe the caller had malicious intent, but rather just general concern for the welfare of the school's students,” police said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

School officials did not respond to requests seeking comment, but in an afternoon email to the Lancaster CTC community, Administrative Director Dr. Stuart Savin said the school would be open Friday and thanked law enforcement, faculty, staff and students.

“We are grateful and recognize that out of an abundance of caution they have taken appropriate steps to ensure the safety of everyone,” he wrote.

More than half a dozen police departments were on duty and were supported by the fire department, which regulated traffic from another half a dozen fire companies.

This is how it went

Although the threat proved to be unfounded, the reaction of the students and their families was very real.

According to Katina Loercher, some students armed themselves with pipes and wrenches in a classroom. Her 17-year-old son Josh called her and described how they barricaded themselves in one of the workshop classrooms with about 15 other students after hearing that someone had a gun.

By 10:42 a.m., school officials had sent a message to parents advising that the threat was unfounded but that the Willow Street and Brownstown campuses would be closed out of an abundance of caution. Students at the Mount Joy campus had already been set up for remote learning on Thursday. due to a sewage problem.

About a mile from campus, parents waited to pick up their children at Willow Street Mennonite Church on the corner of Hans Herr Drive and Penn Grant Road. Some shared text messages and phone calls from their children that painted a picture of increasing tension between students and teachers.

Cortney Casey said her 17-year-old daughter communicated with her in whispers after a teacher moved her class into a closet.

Casey said she rushed to the school and was able to see her daughter again, who had heard that someone “had a gun” at the school.

She and her daughter then entered the church, where school officials checked to make sure everyone was present.

Both Casey and Loercher expressed disappointment at not hearing directly from the school during the emergency.

By 12:30 p.m., many students had already left the church grounds and school staff at the church entrance said they could no longer speak.

Among those preparing to leave was Lincoln Hoover, 17, of Ephrata Township, who was in his automotive technology class when the lockdown announcement came.

“Our teacher had just told us about the threat and said, 'Don't think about it too much. It's going to be OK.' And then they said on the announcements, 'We're going into lockdown.' So, everyone closes their blinds and stuff. So a buddy and I went out and closed all the blinds and pushed things against the door and stuff like that,” Hoover said.

Hoover said he relied on his ALICE training, an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate, a long-established training for responding to active shooters.

“Since elementary school, we've been taught to lock the doors, hide under the table and stuff like that,” said Hoover, who was in the church parking lot with his mother, Mindy Hoover, and two other classmates, Ashlen Martin, 17, and Brayden Heisey, 17.

“We were told to just sit and wait, because then police officers would come and tell us to put our hands up and stuff, and then get out. … They had (police officers) with guns and stuff in the hallway,” Lincoln Hoover said.

Lincoln Hoover and his classmates said there had been some discussion among students that morning about threats, but they had largely dismissed them. “You know how kids are,” he said.

But he also knows that school shootings happen.

“You hear about other schools where there are shootings and stuff like that. … You know it's very real. It could happen to you. I never thought it would happen. It never happened in elementary school. But now it's real. It's reality,” Lincoln Hoover said.

He said his class was one of the last to evacuate, and he left around 11:50 a.m. Mindy Hoover said she arrived at the parking lot about a half hour before her son.

“I was getting texts from Lincoln all morning and then I realized, 'Hey, this is the seriousness of the situation,'” she said. Then she got an email and a call from the career center telling her there was an upcoming event and she should come to church.

“We were panicking”

Kylee Hlavaty, 17, of Manor Township, is studying animal production science and technology. As she began driving home, she said she had heard of threats that morning that could be traced back to Texas.

“And then we got an announcement over the loudspeaker that we were going into lockdown, and my teacher led us into one of the storage rooms in our room,” Hlavaty said.

At this point, Hlavaty and some other students were holding rabbits, which are part of their class work, so she took the rabbit inside.

“We were panicked and didn’t put her back in the cage,” Hlavaty said.

Hlavaty said 19 students and the teacher were in the storage room trying to communicate with parents, but cellphone reception was spotty because of the cinder concrete walls.

“We were all shaking, kind of scared. We didn't cry, we just didn't know what was going on. We didn't know if it was real,” she said.

About 90 minutes later, Hlavaty estimated, they began the evacuation.

“They made us come out with our hands raised, almost all the way to the office. And then they said we could put our hands down again as long as they were visible,” Hlavaty said.