Hillside High School in Durham found itself in a tense situation yesterday when a nearby drug complaint led to a lockdown and a heavy police presence. Multiple news outlets reported that local law enforcement responded to a drug complaint near the high school premises around 10:30 a.m., with a subsequent search for three individuals who appeared to re-enter the school and matched descriptions of carjacking suspects from an earlier incident. ABC11 reported that Chopper 11 captured footage of multiple law enforcement vehicles on-site with some entrances to the school taped off.
During the lockdown students' bags were searched for weapons and drugs, as stated by Hillside High student Carter Baker in a CBS 17 interview, "You just live day by day just wondering what’s going to happen next,” Baker said. “It’s just like a scary thought for real.” The school's principal, Dr. Joshua Mallory, assured families through a robocall that the lockdown had been lifted, and the school day resumed its normal schedule.
Adding to the unease of an already fraught scenario, law enforcement conducted a rigorous search. According to WRAL, "law enforcement conducted a thorough room-by-room search of the building with weapons drawn after receiving reports that the suspects may be on campus with firearms," as informed in a letter from Durham School of Technology principal Lamont Dixon to parents. The three individuals in question were eventually found; however, no weapons or drugs were discovered, and no arrests were made.
Amid this chaos, the safety of students and staff was paramount to Durham Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Lewis, who was on-site during the lockdown. "When I signed that contract, I was signing that contract to ensure that I have the best interests of our students and our staff, all 32,000 of our students' best interests at heart," Lewis stated in a WRAL report. The lockdown, which was put in place as a safety precaution by deputies, was eventually lifted around 12:30 p.m. In the backdrop of these events, a stolen vehicle associated with the initial carjacking was later found near Hope Valley Golf Course.
The incident comes just weeks after DPS hosted a school safety summit to discuss and evaluate safety protocols at Hillside High School. Superintendent Lewis, quoted in a CBS 17 report, reflected a growing sentiment: “Our kids should be worried about solving for X or identifying parts of the cell, not worried about ‘am I going to have to go on lockdown, what is this lockdown?'”
