Blow me down!

"It was terrifying.  I didn't know what was going on...... we were all huddled up in a corner," stated Bailey Padgett, a student.



Four Onslow County NC schools were placed on lock down on September 19 2014 for several hours after 10 am in the morning.  The police had been notified that a man had approached a teacher at Richlands Elementary School and the teacher noticed that he was carrying a gun.  They are prohibited on school grounds and the teacher had lost sight of the "suspicious" man, so lock down procedures were instituted while the police arrived.

The lock down stayed in effect at Richlands Elementary, Richlands Primary, Richlands High School and Trexler Middle School because the man could not be found.  The police felt that he may have been hiding in a classroom while they searched.  The police did eventually find the man that caused the panic and a statement the next day from the school district's spokeswoman stated that they had found the man and it was a case of mistaken identity and had no malicious intent.

What has finally been revealed was the rest of the story behind the big school scare........  it seems that the school was celebrating International Speak Like a Pirate Day and the man with a gun......?  He was a teacher who dresses like a pirate for the event every year and the "gun" was actually a plastic pirate sword he had attached to his belt.

I do understand the need to be cautious these days and with strangers on school property but this is a bit far-fetched.  Somehow a cafeteria worker mistook a teacher dressed for a pirate event for a stranger with a gun?  I can't fault the school system for over reacting but I can fault the worker for panicking and causing the scare.

Blow me down!    ( pirate for Holy Crap! )






http://eagnews.org/teachers-plastic-pirate-sword-leads-to-school-lockdown/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.jdnews.com/jdnewstream/ocso-pirate-costume-led-to-richlands-schools-lock-down-1.380395

http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/Onslow-County-elementary-school-on-lockdown-275738691.html