Grapevine Colleyville ISD: 4 Schools Placed On 'Precautionary Lockout' After Threatening Calls
GRAPEVINE COLLEYVILLE ISD (CBSDFW.COM) — The Grapevine Colleyville school district took to Twitter Friday afternoon to announce four schools have been placed on "precautionary lockouts" after receiving threatening phone calls.
Cross Timbers Middle School, Colleyville Middle School, Grapevine Middle School and Glenhope Elementary School have received threatening phone calls from the same source from earlier this week, GCISD said. But all students and staff are "safe in the buildings."
GCISD Superintendent Robin Ryan released the following statement:
Today, several of our campuses received threatening calls from the same phone number that threatened Cross Timbers Middle School earlier in the week.
Cross Timbers Middle School and Grapevine Middle School received a shooting threat and were placed in a lockout.
Glenhope Elementary received a threat of explosives outside of the building. As the explosives were referenced to be outside of the building, the decision was made to put the campus in a lockout so that the Colleyville Police Department could conduct a swift and thorough sweep of the perimeter of the building.
Colleyville Middle School received a phone call from the same number; however, the call went unanswered. While monitoring District phone systems, we detected the attempted call to Colleyville Middle School and placed the school on lockout due to the threatening nature of the other phone calls.The District immediately coordinated with Colleyville, Grapevine and Euless Police Departments to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Additional officers were present at elementary, middle and high school from the time we received the calls through the completion of dismissals.
On Tuesday, the District provided law enforcement with the phone number associated with the threats. Through our ongoing monitoring, we identified that today's calls came from the same number. As we move forward, we will continue to work with local law enforcement as they investigate the threats that have been received this week.
In GCISD, we practice safety drills on a regular basis and emphasize the importance of developing relationships. Those relationships extend beyond the classroom, or the campus, and can also extend to our community partners. I want to take a moment to thank Colleyville, Grapevine and Euless Police Departments for their assistance and continued partnership with GCISD. These officers are our greatest allies in helping to keep our students and staff safe.
I, like you, am frustrated by the events of this week. In the face of adversity, I am so proud of our students and staff. They were respectful, adaptable, cooperative and responsive. We will have counselors available next week for students should they need additional support. Please know that the safety and security of all students and staff is our top priority and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure our students have a safe place to learn.
Since the campuses were placed on precautionary lockouts, no one was allowed to enter or exit the buildings.
Colleyville police said they are coordinating with the district and Grapevine police and are increasing presence at the schools as a precaution.
The schools were dismissed at regular time but extra police were on the campuses.
This is an ongoing investigation.
