Lockdown alarm confirmed accidental at Grand Mountain School

UPDATE: WEDNESDAY 9/4/2024 11:43 a.m.

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office (EPSO) reported on Wednesday, Sept. 4 everyone inside Grand Mountain School in the Security-Widefield area is safe.

EPSO said via X (formerly known as Twitter), that the lockdown alarm was accidentally activated and everyone is safe.

Samantha Briggs, Director of Communication for Widefield School District 3 said the lockdown alarm went off at approximately 10:33 a.m. Briggs said the alarm was not initiated by students or staff.

“At this time we have not ruled out a malfunction of the system and we are continuing to investigate that,” said Briggs.

The school followed a lockdown protocol which involved contacting the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. Parents were notified of the lockdown alarm, and according to Briggs there are monthly lockdown drills and it was almost like “running a normal drill.”

Briggs said deputies cleared the building and the school is safe. EPSO Sergeant Kurt Smith confirmed the school was safe, and added deputies conducted a search to make sure no one was harmed and there were no active acts of violence.

According to Sergeant Smith, deputies responded in less than five minutes and had enough personnel to search the building.

“We train regularly for these types of responses to ensure safety and to get to the school as fast as we can,” said Smith. “That retraining is invaluable to our officers so that we can do this professionally and I think we did that today.”

The school will continue operations as normal. Traffic has been restored on Fontaine Boulevard.

ORIGINAL TITLE: EPSO responds to lockdown at Grand Mountain School

WEDNESDAY 9/4/2024 11:30 a.m.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office (EPSO) reported on Wednesday morning, Sept. 4, that it was on scene at Grand Mountain School in the Security-Widefield area.

EPSO said via X (formerly known as Twitter) at 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday, that officers were responding to a lockdown at the school, located near the intersection of Fontaine Boulevard and Lamprey Drive.

According to Samantha Briggs, Director of Communication for Widefield School District 3, the lockdown alarm went off at the school and the reason for why it went off is currently unknown. Briggs added that the School District is following lockdown protocol, which includes the Sheriff’s Office clearing the building.

Once the building is cleared by EPSO, according to Briggs, the district will be able to investigate why the alarm went off.

FOX21 has reached out to the Sheriff’s Office for more information and also has a crew on the way to the school, and will update this article as more information becomes available.

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