Staffers at Herff Elementary School in Boerne heard gunshots near the playground Thursday afternoon, prompting a lockdown and a multi-agency search of the wooded area surrounding the campus. Officials said no active threat to the school was ever identified, and students and staff were evacuated by 5:20 p.m.
Boerne Police Department officers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers converged on the school around 4 p.m. and searched the surrounding tree line following the reports of nearby gunfire, according to KENS 5. The Kendall County Sheriff's Office said the school was placed on lockdown as a precautionary method after staffers heard the shots nearby, per the San Antonio Express-News. Kevin Klaerner, a lieutenant with the Kendall County Sheriff's Office, confirmed multiple agencies were on scene searching the area around the campus.
No Threat Found, Kids Sent Home Safely
The sheriff's office posted a safety update at 4:40 p.m. stating there was no active threat to the campus, according to the Express-News report by Hill Country reporter Ricardo Delgado. Herff Elementary sits at 604 Esperanza Boulevard, a few miles east of central Boerne in Kendall County, and is one of eight elementary campuses within Boerne Independent School District. Students and staff were evacuated from the building by 5:20 p.m., bringing the incident to a close roughly ninety minutes after the initial reports.
The origin of the gunshots was not confirmed in the reporting, leaving open whether the noise came from target shooting or hunting on nearby private acreage, or from something else entirely. Law enforcement had not announced whether the source was ever located.
How Boerne ISD Handles Campus Security
Texas law under House Bill 3, enacted in 2023, requires public school districts to station at least one armed security officer on every campus during school hours, though districts can claim a good-cause exception for funding or staffing shortages, according to the Texas School Safety Center. Boerne ISD meets that mandate through a cost-sharing arrangement in which the district covers 60% and local law enforcement agencies cover 40% of salaries for dedicated School Resource Officers across all its campuses, a partnership detailed by the San Antonio Express-News in 2023 coverage of the funding model.
The district also relies on the Raptor Visitor Management System, live-feed camera monitoring accessible to police dispatchers, and an anonymous See Something, Say Something reporting tool as part of its broader security framework, per Boerne ISD's own materials. Herff Elementary itself was designed by Pfluger Architects with a central helix ramp and a transparent secure vestibule meant to optimize visibility and control who enters the building, according to the Exhibit of School Architecture. The school opened in 2019 under Principal Jennifer Hammond after voters approved funding through a 2016 Boerne ISD bond issue.
A Fast-Growing County Meets Rural Edges
Herff Elementary sits within a stretch of Kendall County that has seen rapid suburban growth pressing up against wooded and rural acreage. U.S. Census Bureau estimates released in March showed the county's population grew 20.3% between 2020 and 2025 to reach 53,289 residents, with domestic migration driving most of that increase, according to Community Impact. Boerne ISD as a whole enrolls 11,179 students across 13 campuses, and district projections presented to the Board of Trustees in May 2025 show Herff and other eastern elementary campuses reaching full capacity within the next decade.
Thursday's lockdown is not the only recent instance of Kendall County law enforcement responding to reports of gunfire in the area. In July, Kendall County Sheriff's deputies and Boerne Police responded to a pre-dawn gunfire call in a residential subdivision that led to an officer-involved shooting and an active multi-agency investigation. No further details connecting the two incidents have been released.
