Also, students reported seeing a man with a gun Tuesday morning near Price Elementary School.
And, a 13-year-old boy allegedly fired plastic pellets from a toy gun two weeks ago at three female students at Wheatland Middle School, police said.
With the recent outbreak of school violence nationally, including the Oct. 2 shooting of 10 girls at the Nickel Mines Schoolhouse in Bart Township, School District of Lancaster Superintendent Rita Bishop wants to assure parents that safety is her No. 1 priority.
In the wake of the recent violence, “you are much more concerned, but I don’t think this is any huge trend,” Bishop said of the incidents in her district.
She said Price and Reynolds school officials handled their situations well, calling police and ordering a lockdown at Price.
And if something major were to happen, the district has an excellent Web-based crisis plan, she said. “We would be as prepared as you could ever be,” she said.
The School District of Lancaster isn’t the only district dealing with threats and rumors of violence.
This morning, officials at the York County School of Technology ordered a lockdown after receiving reports that a student had brought gun, according to WGAL news.
Police said they spoke to the student in question and that the incident had been resolved by 10 a.m., the York Daily Record newspaper reported late in the morning.
Students were expected to remain in school for the rest of the day.
ABC 27 news said police had gone through the building while teachers locked the doors and kept students inside the classrooms. The police search turned up no gun.
Recently, rumors of a student having a “hit-list” at Hempfield High School prompted the school to alert parents and call police to investigate. They found no “hit-list.”
Nearly two years ago, Solanco School District dealt with a bevy of bomb threats.
But the fear of school violence hit home Oct. 2 when a gunman entered a Bart Township Amish schoolhouse, bound 10 girls and opened fire. Five girls died, and five others remain at area hospitals. The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, shot and killed himself.
In recent weeks, a 15-year-old student shot and killed his principal in Wisconsin.
And, a man held six female students hostage at a Colorado high school before killing a 16-year-old girl and himself.
The incidents prompted President Bush to hold a summit Tuesday in suburban Maryland to discuss ways to stop school violence.
School violence actually has been declining in recent years, according to statistics on the National School Safety Center Web site. But since the 1992-93 school year, there have been 323 deaths from school shootings across the country.
A 2002 Safe School Initiative study by the U.S. Secret Service found that shootings and other violent incidents in schools are almost always planned, and that most of the time other students knew it would happen.
The study noted that students can help prevent the crimes by telling what they know.
The 12-year-old from Reynolds told at least two of his classmates about his alleged plan to blow up the school, at 605 W. Walnut St.
One of the students told principal Arnie Raffone that the 12-year-old said he “placed two sticks of dynamite in a locker and that it was scheduled to go off in five hours.”
Raffone called police and ordered three staff members to search lockers. They found nothing.
Meanwhile, students were kept in their classrooms, Raffone said.
The boy was arrested and charged with terroristic threats and a threat to use weapons of mass destruction.
“It’s the students who are your key,” Raffone said. He also called the two students’ parents, to congratulate them on their children coming forward. They did the right thing, he said.
On Tuesday, students reported seeing a gunman at the Lancaster Recreation Commission building near Price Elementary School, 615 Fairview Ave.
School officials ordered a full lockdown.
A girl who is a school safety patrol officer at the school told a reporter that she heard gunshots.
Lancaster Police Lt. Brent Oberholtzer said police didn’t hear anything about a gun being fired.
Children gave police varying accounts about the reported gunman. Someone said he pointed the weapon. Someone else said he was just carrying it.
“Ultimately we scoured the entire area and found no man with the gun,” Oberholtzer said.
Also police found no evidence of a gun being fired, no casings, no bullets, in the neighborhood around the school, Lancaster City Police Capt. Pete Anders said.
On Sept. 28, a 13-year-old boy fired a toy gun at three girls at Wheatland Middle School, 919 Hamilton Park Drive. The student has been disciplined under district policy, district spokeswoman Kelly Herr said.
The boy will face three charges of simple assault and a charge of bringing a weapon onto school property, police said.
Wheatland Principal Marty Slaugh said the boy brought the plastic gun as a prank.
A nurse who checked the girls out that day said they did not need further medical attention, Herr said.
The school called the police the following day, Sept. 29, to confiscate the toy gun.
Slaugh said the police should have been called the day of the incident.
He said the school has a new administrative team, and a communication glitch caused the delay.
As a whole, the school district has been proactive in creating a safe environment for students and quickly reports any incidents to police, Anders said.
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