Emory University urged people on its main campus to shelter in place for several hours Thursday after a nearby high school was placed on lockdown "due to a report of an unsafe situation.”
The guidance followed some confusion about a potential threat on the school's main campus in Atlanta. The university tweeted around 11:40 a.m. that an active shooter had been reported on the campus and that police were responding.
The university later deleted that tweet and sent out another shortly after noon saying that police were on the scene at nearby Druid Hills High School. The tweet said there was a “possible armed subject” but no active shooter on the Emory campus.
Throughout the early afternoon, the university periodically put out tweets advising people on campus to continue to shelter in place. The all-clear notification was finally issued around 2:20 p.m.
The incident comes just ahead of graduation weekend at the private university, which consistently ranks among the top schools of higher education in the Southeast. The main commencement ceremony, including a speech by entertainment mogul Tyler Perry, is Monday.
DeKalb County school system spokesman Donald Porter said in an email that the school was placed on lockdown around 10:40 a.m. “out of an abundance of caution due to a report of an unsafe situation.” He added that the lockdown “did not result from an active situation.”
School system and county police were onsite throughout the lockdown, which was lifted at around 12:10 p.m., Porter said. The investigation that led to the lockdown continues, he said.
Maia Higgins, 16, said that when the school went into lockdown she and other students had to stay in their classrooms. Principal Mark Joyner announced over the public address system that it was a “level 2” lockdown, which Higgins took to mean there was some type of threat but no active shooter.
Higgins said a photo of a student with a handgun had circulated on social media. It was not known whether the photo was connected to the lockdown.
According to the local news blog Decaturish, Joyner also sent a notification to parents about the situation.
“We are currently under a Level 2 lockdown due to a report that an unauthorized individual was seen on campus,” Joyner wrote. “DeKalb Schools Public Safety Department is assisting to ensure that all individuals on campus are authorized to be here. All students and staff are safe at this time.”
For more than two hours after the lockdown at the high school was lifted, Emory continued to tell its students on the main campus to shelter in place, sending out repeated tweets to that effect into the afternoon.
Adam North, a graduate student at Emory’s law school, was among the students sheltering in place on the university campus Thursday afternoon. He said students had been receiving mixed messages about the situation, causing some confusion. Official communications were coming in from automated emails, text message alerts and Emory’s online learning portal, but individual professors and attorneys at the law school had been given differing information.
“Those messages haven’t really aligned with the Emory notifications,” North said in a text message from the law library, where he had been sheltering for about two hours.
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The guidance followed some confusion about a potential threat on the school's main campus in Atlanta. The university tweeted around 11:40 a.m. that an active shooter had been reported on the campus and that police were responding.
The university later deleted that tweet and sent out another shortly after noon saying that police were on the scene at nearby Druid Hills High School. The tweet said there was a “possible armed subject” but no active shooter on the Emory campus.
Throughout the early afternoon, the university periodically put out tweets advising people on campus to continue to shelter in place. The all-clear notification was finally issued around 2:20 p.m.
The incident comes just ahead of graduation weekend at the private university, which consistently ranks among the top schools of higher education in the Southeast. The main commencement ceremony, including a speech by entertainment mogul Tyler Perry, is Monday.
DeKalb County school system spokesman Donald Porter said in an email that the school was placed on lockdown around 10:40 a.m. “out of an abundance of caution due to a report of an unsafe situation.” He added that the lockdown “did not result from an active situation.”
School system and county police were onsite throughout the lockdown, which was lifted at around 12:10 p.m., Porter said. The investigation that led to the lockdown continues, he said.
Maia Higgins, 16, said that when the school went into lockdown she and other students had to stay in their classrooms. Principal Mark Joyner announced over the public address system that it was a “level 2” lockdown, which Higgins took to mean there was some type of threat but no active shooter.
Higgins said a photo of a student with a handgun had circulated on social media. It was not known whether the photo was connected to the lockdown.
According to the local news blog Decaturish, Joyner also sent a notification to parents about the situation.
“We are currently under a Level 2 lockdown due to a report that an unauthorized individual was seen on campus,” Joyner wrote. “DeKalb Schools Public Safety Department is assisting to ensure that all individuals on campus are authorized to be here. All students and staff are safe at this time.”
For more than two hours after the lockdown at the high school was lifted, Emory continued to tell its students on the main campus to shelter in place, sending out repeated tweets to that effect into the afternoon.
Adam North, a graduate student at Emory’s law school, was among the students sheltering in place on the university campus Thursday afternoon. He said students had been receiving mixed messages about the situation, causing some confusion. Official communications were coming in from automated emails, text message alerts and Emory’s online learning portal, but individual professors and attorneys at the law school had been given differing information.
“Those messages haven’t really aligned with the Emory notifications,” North said in a text message from the law library, where he had been sheltering for about two hours.
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