WGPD finds no gun in WOHS lockdown

The West Orange High School Ninth-Grade Center was on lockdown the afternoon of Friday, May 15, because of an investigation by the Winter Garden Police Department.

"A couple of girls were walking along through the hallways outside and thought they saw what was a barrel to a gun," said Lt. Scott Allen, of the Winter Garden Police Department. "They never saw a whole gun, just what they thought was a barrel, so they reported it to the administration; the administration reported it to us; we locked down the school."

Myriad police searched the entire school and identified the people those girls had walked past, Allen said.

"There is no gun," Allen said. "There is possibly something that could have been (mistaken) -- kids have hairbrushes and stuff like that in their backpacks. We're still talking to them, but it just looks like it was just a mistake, which is fine. I'd rather have them say something and it be a mistake than they not say something and we have (an incident)."

Allen said no other buildings -- not even the main campus of West Orange High School -- had been on lockdown, just the ninth-grade center, with no children in the woods. There had been an escort of students inside the property.

Norman Envall, area coordinator of protective services for Orange County Public Schools, said school personnel would let the students have free lunch and then release students to go home around the normal time.

"We're going to keep a presence here just to make them feel better," Allen said.

While the building was on lockdown, officers were directing people away from the front of the building, and the vehicle exits were blocked by police cars. Two cars were by the middle entrance near the admission office with officers standing in the outside halls around the main entrance. A helicopter was monitoring the situation from high in the sky.

Parents said their children had communicated via text messages that they were locked in their classrooms. One parent said her daughter and others had locked themselves in a locker room.

Parents parked along the opposite side of the street while police in armored vests calmly entered the premises one by one. Students told their parents the police were entering each of the classrooms to ensure safety and account for everyone.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].