COBB — Cobb Mountain Elementary School students returned to class Thursday without a hitch after staff locked down the campus Wednesday following reports of a burglary suspect on campus with a gun. No students or staff were injured, school administrative assistant Di Cardoza said.
“It”s quiet,” Cardoza said. “Things are all back to normal.”
About 12:55 p.m., the time school let out Wednesday, a Cobb man called the Sheriff”s Office saying he saw a man with a gun enter his neighbor”s home on Meadow Drive with the apparent intent to rob him, Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff”s Office said. The man left on foot toward the school. Reports came in that a second man may have been involved and left in the opposite direction.
A parent drove to the school and told Cardoza there was a suspect on campus with a weapon. The school went to immediate lockdown, she called 9-1-1 and LCSO responded quickly.
School was already dismissed, but the bus hadn”t arrived and it was raining so Cardoza already shepherded the students into the multi-use room. Staff locked all the doors and checked all the buildings for students.
“A few men here on campus immediately went outside with one of our custodians and made sure the buildings were locked and secured,” Cardoza said.
Sheriff”s officers, detectives with the Major Crimes Unit and a K-9 team responded to the scene to search for the suspects but did not find them, Bauman said. The department didn”t have an update Thursday on the investigation.
Superintendent Korby Olson of the Middletown Unified School District said school is back to normal for the 159 students who attend Cobb Mountain Elementary School.
“It seemed like everything went fairly smoothly,” Olson said.
Once the bus arrived at school Wednesday and sheriff”s officers determined there was no immediate threat, officers escorted the students to the bus, which took them to their regular stops.
The school”s emergency notification system sent out two recorded messages to parents” phones, one that said the school was locked down and the second that students left on a bus. The school sent letters home with students advising parents of the incident. Olson said the best thing school staff, faculty and administrators can do is be vigilant for the students.
“In this case, we do the best we can to protect them,” Olson said.
