A. Philip Randolph High School in Jacksonville was placed under lockout Thursday afternoon after a school official believed they heard gunshots near the campus, prompting a law enforcement response and warnings for parents to stay away while officers checked the area. No one was injured, and officials say the sounds could not be confirmed as gunfire.
The initial report came from a school official at the Golfair Boulevard campus who thought they heard gunfire near the building, according to WJXT News4JAX. The school was first placed under lockdown before shifting to a lockout, a change a Duval County Public Schools spokesperson confirmed to the station. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office assisted the school board in responding, but told the district it could not confirm that gunshots had actually been fired in the area.
Parents were alerted about the situation and specifically advised not to come to campus to pick up their children while the lockout was in effect. The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department staged in the surrounding area to support law enforcement, and later confirmed it had no patients to transport. Fire crews also cleared the area near the school once the check was complete.
Why Lockdown Became Lockout
The shift in terminology reflects a specific distinction in district policy. Under Duval County Public Schools safety guidelines, a lockdown is declared when there is an imminent threat on or near campus, while a lockout is a precautionary measure that restricts exterior entry and exit but allows indoor classes to continue normally, according to Team Duval. That framework mirrors the national Standard Response Protocol, under which a “Secure” designation — formerly called a lockout — is meant to protect a school's perimeter during off-campus hazards while keeping learning inside largely undisturbed, per Avigilon.
The precaution is common when reports of nearby gunfire cannot be immediately verified. In December 2025, Atlantic Coast High School in Duval County was placed under a similar precautionary lockout after reports of gunfire in the surrounding community; that lockout was lifted once the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office swept the area and verified the campus was safe, Action News Jax reported at the time.
Security Requirements and Local Context
Florida law already requires an armed presence on every public school campus during the school day. Florida Statute § 1006.12 mandates that each campus maintain at least one armed safe-school officer on-site while classes are in session, per Team Duval. Duval County Public Schools assigns sworn officers from its own Duval County School Police Department to all middle and high schools, while guardians and contracted elementary security personnel complete a 144-hour training program led by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
A. Philip Randolph Academies of Technology sits at 1157 Golfair Boulevard and serves roughly 350 students in career-focused academies covering fields like building trades and welding, according to Niche. The area has seen violence before: in July 2023, a fatal daytime shooting on Golfair Boulevard down the street from the school triggered multiple ShotSpotter alerts and 911 calls that brought Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officers to the area, First Coast News reported. More recently, in November 2025, a shooting following an after-party fight on nearby A. Philip Randolph Boulevard left four people injured, including two juveniles.
A Namesake Rooted in Jacksonville
The school and the boulevard it sits near both carry the name of civil rights icon Asa Philip Randolph, who attended the Cookman Institute in East Jacksonville and graduated as valedictorian in 1907 before going on to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the 1963 March on Washington, according to Wikipedia. Jacksonville renamed Florida Avenue in his honor in 1995.
Duval County Public Schools is the 20th largest school district in the country, operating more than 100 campuses that serve over 120,000 students across Jacksonville, according to a 2017 report from the Florida Auditor General. That scale is part of why the district relies on standardized terminology like lockdown and lockout to coordinate quickly with local law enforcement whenever a potential threat surfaces near any of its schools.
