Lee County High School experienced another lockdown due to an unspecified threat Tuesday, the eighth a local public school has experienced since November, and the second since the arrest of a juvenile suspected in some of the earlier threats.
The school announced in a social media post around 2:30 p.m. that the school was on “soft lockdown” while the threat was investigated. Another post not long after indicated the threat was “not credible” and that additional law enforcement were on campus.
The threats – usually but not always described by the district and law enforcement as bomb threats – began November 4, when LCHS staff received a call from an 800 number. The school was locked down as law enforcement investigated and found no evidence of a bomb. That day, parents crowded into the school’s parking lot, trying to make contact with children inside. Students were eventually released from school early.
There was another unspecified threat on Feb. 23, and the school was again placed on lockdown. That threat was also determined to not be credible, the district said at the time. In that case, students remained on campus until the situation was fully assessed.
March saw even more threats against LCHS, as well as Southern Lee High School. An initially unspecified threat – later described by the district as a threat of violence at the school – caused a lockdown on March 28. That night, the district announced the school would be closed the next day due to a different threat. Southern Lee also received a threat on March 29 – later determined to be not credible – which caused a lockdown.
The threats continued into April, and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office charged a juvenile they described only as “a student” with making multiple threats in March and April. Southern Lee received its second threat the next day, and was placed on temporary lockdown before the threat was deemed not credible.
Tuesday’s threat brings the total number of threats against high schools in Lee County since November to eight – six at LCHS and two at Southern.
as a student who was been in all of these (WHICH IS 6 JUST THIS YEAR ALONE), these things honestly aren’t surprising or scary anymore. They’re just annoying.
And that’s the problem. We are desensitized to the threat since it’s constantly bogus. One day it may not be just a threat and I’m not sure if anyone in either highschool will take it seriously.