Cupertino Preschool Lockdown Lifted After Nearby Search
CUPERTINO (CBS SF) - A lockdown at a Cupertino preschool that was prompted by a police search for a suspect nearby was lifted Wednesday afternoon, a school official said.
Shortly after 2 p.m., a Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy informed staff at the Good Samaritan Preschool, located at 19624 Homestead Road, that they could unlock the doors but not to allow students on the playground, school director Loretta Wong said.
The deputy said it would be a good time to send the children home, so the school contacted parents and the children were picked up a short time later, Wong said.
During the lockdown, which began around 11:45 a.m., sheriff's deputies watched the school property from the Cupertino side of the campus while officers with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety kept an eye on the side that borders Sunnyvale, Wong said.
School staff said the school had locked its front doors and classroom doors, turned off the lights and asked students to lie on the floor "to protect their precious lives."
The students were napping after having lunch in class, school assistant director Stacey O'Toole said.
"To them, it's like a rainy day," O'Toole said. "They don't know that it's a lockdown. It's like any other day to them."
The staff did not know why the suspect is being sought, O'Toole said.
Police were looking for three suspects and two had been arrested as of 1 p.m. Officers were looking for the third suspect near a home on Lark Lane, according to Sunnyvale police Captain David Verbrugge.
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