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Parents Frustrated By Newark High School Lockdown

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Oct 1, 2009 10:04 am US/Pacific

Parents Frustrated By Newark High School Lockdown

 CBS 5 CrimeWatch

NEWARK (CBS 5 / KCBS) ― Parents have complained that school officials did not do enough to inform update them about the status of their children when Newark Memorial High was locked down so police could search the campus for weapons Wednesday.

Students were kept inside classrooms for nearly four hours as SWAT officers methodically went through the school after a group of armed teenagers was spotted near the school.

Frustrated parents waiting outside the school were not calmed by police updates delivered over a megaphone after an ambulance showed up at the school. That medical emergency was not related to the lockdown.

Some learned their children were not hurt by texting them directly, and said they felt stonewalled by the school office.

Eventually a 16-year-old Union City boy was arrested. Two others were also detained, but police said they would likely be released to their parents.

The crisis was precipitated by a group of four to seven teenagers spotted by an officer patrolling a condominium complex near the school. They fled onto campus when the officer tried to approach them.

Historically school districts have down played or deliberately limited information during a crisis, a strategy not suited to the instantaneous communication afforded by ubiquitous cell phones.

Experts now advise schools to create crisis communications teams to make sure accurate information gets to parents and students.

No students were injured and police found nothing suspicious inside the school. The teenager placed under arrest will likely face charges of being a juvenile in possession of a firearm, police said.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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