By Sarita Muneton, Online Editor
One robbery caused a commotion that created a lockdown of five different schools.
Wednesday morning, an incident in the Buena Vista neighborhood caused the lockdown of Reynolds, Whitaker and Brunson elementary schools, Wiley Middle and St. Leo’s. According to Winston-Salem police, 19-year-old Latrelle Stephen Ford was arrested after breaking into a home on Buena Vista Road. Ford was captured, but another suspect tried to evade the authorities by crossing the Whitaker campus, causing the immediate lockdown.
Principal Pat Olsen issued the minor lockdown order over the public address system. During a minor lockdown, no one can enter or leave the campus and students are supposed to remain in classrooms, but teachers are allowed to continue teaching normally. Also, staff members were standing outside the doors, bustling students arriving from the Career Center inside and making sure no one left.
Many students on the Reynolds campus and parents were unaware of what exactly was going on, causing some turmoil. Career Center students were told they could not leave campus after their third period class, but were provided no other information.
“We should have been told,” senior Jaire Smith said. “If it’s our safety, we should know.”
Staff at Reynolds received an email about 20 minutes after the lockdown was issued stating that a community police matter was behind the incident. Because the incident happened off campus and Reynolds was only on a minor lockdown, most students did not think much of it.
“I think it wasn’t as big of a deal as some people made it out to be,” senior Gracion Gross said.
After about 40 minutes, Olsen announced the lockdown was over and students were allowed to continue with their day.
“I thought the student body cooperated and did what they were supposed to,” Olsen said.