After a tense afternoon that saw Jordan High School in Durham under lockdown, district officials have confirmed the measure has been lifted with no weapon found on campus. According to a CBS 17 report, the lockdown was initiated following a report of a student possibly armed with a weapon, prompting a thorough search by law enforcement. After students had spent nearly 45 minutes in lockdown, the all-clear was given just before 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Students at the school experienced a rollercoaster of emotions during the incident, as fears were fueled by reminders of past school shootings. "I thought we were about to be next on that list," a senior named Kaylee told CBS 17, recounting the announcement of the lockdown while transitioning between classes. Alongside the police, deputies from the Durham County sheriff executed a sweep of the property, an action reported by ABC11, but their search confirmed that there was no evidence of a weapon at the scene.
The brief encounter with a potential threat left a lasting impression on the students. In an interview obtained by CBS 17, Beckett, another student, expressed how the lockdown made them feel "a little unsafe at school." The incident was a jarring repeat of emotions from April when the school last faced a lockdown due to a shooting across the street from the campus grounds, as highlighted by WRAL.
Meanwhile, school authorities are likely to review protocols and ensure the safety of students, who have had to adjust to these kind of disruptions at an alarming frequency. "All I hear is ‘this is a lockdown,’ and I’m like hold on, we aren’t supposed to have no drill today whatsoever, and we didn’t have no knowledge of this at all," Kaylee added in her statement to CBS 17.
