Evanston Township High School was placed on lockdown Thursday morning and eight students were detained after two guns were found inside the school.
The incident unfolded after a school resource officer was alerted of students smoking weed in a bathroom about 9:30 a.m., Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew said at a news conference near the school.
The officer detained two students in the bathroom, and an investigation led to the recovery of two handguns, Glew said. The school was placed on lockdown shortly after.
Further investigation showed that six other students were in the bathroom at the time and they were also detained, Glew said. No shots were fired and no injuries were reported.
The lockdown was lifted and students were dismissed by 1 p.m., Glew said.
Nene Shelton said she got a text from her 14-year-old son, a freshman, saying “mom I’m scared. They have us barricaded.”
Shelton, a special needs teacher in Skokie, tried calling her son but he wasn’t answering her many phone calls. “I didn’t get an answer so I was very nervous,” she said.
She responded to the text, telling him to “stay safe, stay calm, don’t panic, because we don’t need you to panic in a situation like this. When you panic you don’t think clearly.” She left work and rushed to the high school.
When she ran up to the school, she was crying and embraced a friend who is also a parent. Their sons are friends and play football together.
Shelton, 33, was relieved when a short time later she got a phone call from her son, saying they were safe.
“Next week was supposed to be the last week, but I think today will be his last day until the new year,” she said as she waited for the lockdown to be lifted. “I have to make sure he’s okay mentally.”
Shelton said the year has been tough for kids in Evanston, with many peers being lost to gun violence. “We don’t really deal with that up here, so this is really a strain on the community.”
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Lashandra Smith-Rayfield, a parent of twins who are juniors, a boy and a girl, said her children would not return to the high school today.
When she first heard about the lockdown, Smith-Rayfield couldn’t get a lot of information from the high school’s website or Evanston police so she reached out to her kids.
She called her daughter, who answered the phone but whispered “I can’t talk, I have to text you,” prompting Smith-Rayfield to jump in her car and go to the school.
Her imagination started running when she showed up and saw barricades and officers armed with rifles entering the school. Smith-Rayfield said she understood the situation was complicated, but wished there was a better way to keep parents informed.
“All of us parents outside, all we’re thinking of is the worst because we have nothing to counter it,” she said. “There has to be some type of middle ground between wanting to be patient and get the information one hundred percent correct and just letting parents know that this is what’s going on.”
Thankfully, she said, she was able to speak to her children who told her they were scared and uneasy, but never felt like their lives were in danger.
“They’re fine. I’m not,” she said. “They say they’re safe, they’re with adults, but I’m taking them home immediately.”
This is a developing story.
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