By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

CUMBERLAND — Cumberland High School was briefly put in lockdown Friday morning after students notified the principal of an alleged threat to the school, according to school officials.

Schools Superintendent Donna Morelle said the students approached high school principal Dorothy Gould around 11 a.m. to say they were “concerned about a threat.”
Morelle would not say if the students overheard a threat from another student, found a note or if there was something else that prompted them to confide in Gould.
After Gould conversed with the students, she notified the school resource officer.
Morelle then convened a meeting of the school’s risk assessment team, and subsequently decided to call in the police Department and lock down the school at 11:15 a.m. The lockdown lasted approximately 25 minutes.
The concept of a school lockdown or “Code Red” involves a no one in, no one out scenario. Code Red is defined as an alert status indicating imminent danger exists to all staff and students.
During a lockdown, staff and students must remain within their classroom or a secured area. If students are in the hallways, they must quickly move to the nearest classroom or to a secure area, remain quiet and follow staff instructions.
The building’s 1,500 students and 115 teachers did just that as police officers conducted their investigation.
“We waited until the police reported to us that the situation was at a point where we could end the lockdown, which was around 11:30,” said Morelle, who described the emergency move as “calm, orderly and quiet.”
When the lockdown ended, students continued their school day as normal, she said, adding that a decision was made not to send everyone home.
Morelle would not comment as to whether any students had been taken into custody as a result of the investigation, saying the issue is now “a police matter.”
Morelle said rumors of gunshots earlier in the morning at the school were unfounded.
According to police Lt. Michael Duda, the information relayed by the students concerned an “incident” that was supposedly going to take place at the school. Duda would only say that police interviewed several students who were said to have been involved in the “incident.”
At around noon the administration was drafting a letter to parents explaining what happened.
Ironically, Morelle said, the School Committee at its meeting Thursday night discussed looking into real-time notification service technology that can be used to get the word out to parents of any emergency situation at the schools.
Using the technology, educators can immediately distribute time-sensitive information about security and crisis-related issues to the parents and emergency contacts of the school district’s students.
When suspicious incidents or security-related issues arise, the principals and educators of the respective schools in the district can immediately record and broadcast a message that is sent to each individual student's emergency contacts, alerting the community of the crisis.
The type of system is now in use by more than 1,250 K-12 school systems nationwide servicing 500,000 family connections per month in over 25 states.
Morelle said the committee will continue to investigate the feasibility of implementing the technology.