The Columbia Police Department has taken over the investigation of the situation that caused the lockdown, said Public Information Officer Latisha Stroer.
RBHS administrators learned of a text message threatening violence, Stroer said. They contacted the school resource officer, Officer Keisha Edwards who asked for assistance at 10:23 a.m. School administrators then made the decision to go on external lockdown.
The lockdown “was completely precautionary. No disturbances happened on campus. Nothing at all,” Stroer said. “Right now we have officers in the area so there is no violence that occurs during school time, and we’ll make a plan of action towards the end of the day.”
Stroer said the police has not questioned or taken anybody into custody yet, and the investigation is still ongoing. It is not clear whether the incident is related to the recent homicide.
“We know that there [are] students that are upset about the homicide that happened over the weekend,” Stroer said, “and right now it’s really an ongoing investigation, so we’re trying to make that connection.”
Principal Mark Maus said Rock Bridge worked with administrators from the Career Center and surrounding schools to make sure they knew the lockdown was precautionary. Students have returned to normal schedules.
“We talked to our district safety coordinator along with CPD and they thought we were OK to return to normal procedure after second block,” Maus said. “We worked with [them] to ensure that our students were safe as well.”
Updated at 11:41 a.m.
The lockdown was lifted at 11:08 a.m.
Of the five police officers who arrived earlier today to investigate the security threat to the school, four have left; one officer will remain to monitor the school for the rest of the day.
Originally posted 10:45 a.m.
At approximately 10:30 a.m. RBHS was put on external lockdown. An email was sent to teachers advising they keep students in the classroom. The lockdown’s cause has yet to be identified though administrators did cite a possible outside safety concern.
By Kirsten Buchanan
Additional reporting by Avantika Khatri and Sami Pathan