Communication during NYC school lockdown under investigation, officials say

NEW YORK — New York City Department of Education officials say they're investigating after there was a communication breakdown when a city high school went on lockdown Thursday.

Schools Chancellor David Banks addressed the incident at his first press conference of the school year Friday .

False gun report at Brandeis High School sparks lockdown

A lockdown was put in place at Brandeis High School on the Upper West Side on Thursday due to a report of a gun, which police say turned out to be a false alarm.

"That's traumatic just to even hear it," Banks said.

Banks and DOE officials say that while the principal did the right thing ordering an immediate lockdown, parents weren't notified immediately, as is protocol.

"We have a system where every principal is supposed to communicate with their parents ... I don't know that that is the way it was handled on the Brandeis campus," Banks said.

One parent who spoke to CBS News New York education reporter Doug Williams said the first email from the school to parents arrived at 12:59 p.m. The email said the lockdown had already ended over an hour earlier, at 11:29 a.m., and it did not mention an early dismissal, despite there being one.

The parent said she learned what was happening through a chat with other parents, and any information those parents had obtained had come from their kids.

"Any parent who had to go through that and was not being communicated with in real time, that is unacceptable to me as the chancellor and for me personally as a parent," Banks said.

P.S. 9 is located across the street from Brandeis and went into "shelter in" protocol given the threat across the street. Parents of students at that school say they were notified about the situation immediately. Banks commended the P.S. 9 principal at Friday's press conference.

Communication breakdown raises concerns about proposed cellphone ban

If indeed there were Brandeis parents who heard from their kids before they heard from the school's principal, that goes against what the chancellor has been saying in arguing for a system-wide smartphone ban .

"The number one reason, and concern, around a cellphone ban always has to do with, if you have an emergency, how do parents communicate– or how are parents communicated with? They shouldn't have to rely on being in touch with individual children," Banks said.

In the past, Banks has said kids are "addicted" to cellphones and announced plans to enact a district-wide ban as early as January 2025 . About 350 city schools already have their own individual bans in place .