Lockdown

Lockdown - The confinement of students to their classroom for all or most of the day as a temporary security measure.

February 27, 2009

Yes, I had to change the definition a little bit since it referred to "prisoners" and "cells" that didn't quite fit this event. It was like a knife through my heart to hear Taylor call me today and say "Mom, you have to come and pick me up. The school is on lockdown. There has been a shooting." I thought she meant a shooting at the school, but it was a shooting in the area. I couldn't even get into the school parking lot, so this is taken with my phone as I sat on 100 East. The cars were backed up forever long. What a zoo!


At first they had hundreds of parents lined up outside the school to check out their students. We have to show picture ID to check kids out now, so needless to say the whole process was moving nowhere fast. I hadn't thought to bring a jacket and I had Addie with me since Lane wasn't home. After a while, a school official came out and told the parents that if we knew where our kids were (they were all in their last period classrooms) we could go get them. At first that just added to my frustration because I didn't know Taylor's schedule. After a minute or so, I remembered that when she had called me I had asked her "Where are you right now?" and she told me that she was TA'ing. Once I remembered that, I just went into the school and got her and it didn't take too long. I'm so glad that somehow I had remembered to ask her that, and then glad that somehow I remembered that I had asked her. I would have been there forever! Taylor, naturally, reminds me that it wouldn't have mattered because if only she had had a cell phone, I could have called her and asked where she was. Ouch. That will give a well-meaning parent a lot of guilt. I wish I had taken a picture of the school parking lot. There were parents everywhere, and the cars were stuck in there like some sort of a puzzle. I don't know how any of them got out once they were in. They were parked at all sorts of weird angles and sometimes in the middle of the road. It was a huge mess. Let's just hope that never happens again! Mount Mahogany, one of the elementary schools listed in the story, is the school we went to at our old house. I can't imagine if all of the kids had been in lockdown! This is happy valley, for crying out loud!


Below is the article from KSL.com. What a scary thing to have happen in this one-horse town.

PLEASANT GROVE— One man is dead and another man is under arrest after a shooting in Pleasant Grove. Police have released the name of the victim. He is 45-year-old Jeffrey Boyd Ackerman.

Police have shut down 1100 North between 1300 West and 2000 West in Pleasant Grove as they gather evidence and interview witnesses to the shooting. The road is expected to remain closed until about 6 p.m.
Around 12:45 Friday afternoon witnesses heard two men arguing and heard gunshots.
One homeowner looked out his window and saw Ackerman chasing another man through his yard. They ran across the street into a field.
Police say the man being chased turned around and shot Ackerman three to four times in the stomach and chest. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police say the men know each other, but they don't know why the shooting happened.
Lt. Michael Smith of the Pleasant Grove Police Department said, "We know the male, the victim, was in his driveway loading some 4-wheelers to go ride for the weekend. Gunshots were heard outside the house by his father. That's all we know at this time."
Around 2 p.m., police arrested the suspected shooter a couple of blocks away, at 100 North and 100 East in American Fork. He is 25 years old. They have not released his name.
Police say he did try to run from them.
Before officers arrested him, someone at a nearby medical clinic saw the suspect standing near a car. The witness told police the suspect raised his hands in the air and said, "I didn't do it."
Police found a gun, a .45 automatic, on the hood of a car parked at that clinic.
As the shooting and arrest unfolded, three schools in the area were put under lockdown for a couple of hours.
Police asked Pleasant Grove Jr. High, Mt. Mahogany Elementary and Manila Elementary not to transport students with buses. Students were held at the school until parents or their usual rides arrived. Students who usually walk called their parents.
Police could stay on scene for some time. The crime scene is spread out because the two men involved in this were running through the neighborhood.