MD - elem. school lockdown after stabbing reported, teacher took 27 students through woods to cafe, undressed, no stabbing occurred, 11/3/22

[teachermamalady]

Frederick Co. teacher takes students out of class, makes stabbing accusation - WTOP News

Someone called the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland to report multiple stabbings at an elementary school; but when deputies responded, they found a teacher and several students gone and there were no stabbings at all.

wtop.com

Sheriff: Elementary school teacher took students to cafe as school was being placed on lockdown

A report of multiple people stabbed at a Frederick County elementary school on Thursday, turned out to be false.

www.wmar2news.com

An elementary school in Frederick County, Maryland is no longer under a 'lockdown' status following a report of alleged multiple stabbings happening at the school.
Officers from the Frederick County Sheriff's Office were called to Green Valley Elementary School just before 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.
"When we got here we found out there was no such stabbing at all, but a teacher and 27 students were missing," said Todd Wivell with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office.
The school was initially put on lockdown.
Wivell says the 911 call came from The Buzz, which is a little more than half a mile from the school. He says a teacher, who had walked into the cafe with 27 of her students, told a worker to call 911 because there was a stabbing at the school.
A Green Valley Elementary School parent told WUSA9 over the phone, that her daughter was one of the kids in that class. She says her daughter called her husband from a customer's phone at The Buzz, in a complete panic.
She says her daughter was "very upset" and said, "that there was a school shooting". Authorities had been told it was a stabbing. The parent who didn't want her name published told WUSA9 it was the "worst thing that's ever been said to me".
"She said they heard screams and they were told to run," she said.
The parent told WUSA9 her daughter told her, the teacher had her and her classmates run through the woods, and "take off any tracking devices that they had on and any bright colored clothing that they had", as they ran.
She says her daughter took off her own sweatshirt to give to a classmate who was wearing a brightly colored shirt, as they ran through the woods.
The Frederick County Sheriff's Office confirmed to WUSA9 that the kids were told by the teacher, to take off brightly colored clothing.
"I can tell you that the students and the teacher when they got to The Buzz Cafe, they were very upset. There was some crying going on" said Wivell.
After the school was put on lockdown the school status transitioned to a 'hold' and parents were asked to not come to the school to pick up their children. Once officers secured the building, the school went back to normal operations and dismal took place as normal, according to officials.
Wivell told WUSA9 the teacher was taken into custody "but I have to be clear custody does not mean the person was arrested. They could be transported to Frederick Health Hospital, they could be transported back to the law enforcement center for questioning. From there we will work with the Frederick County State's Attorney's Office to determine if charges are pending".
The parent tells WUSA9 she has a lot of questions and doesn't understand how this happened.
"What happened that makes someone think there was a stabbing or shooting going on in the school," the parent said.

 

[FlossyMay]

Wow. I wonder how an entire class managed to run off the school grounds without anyone noticing.

 

[teachermamalady]

I am local to this and am just so intrigued. The sheriff and school/district's only statements were yesterday afternoon around 2, and after two moms started commenting on all the local pages that their kids had had their clothing taken by the teacher who had stripped and made up the stabbing, and were all cut up and injured from the run through the forest...

But then I have seen others say that the initial statement from the sheriff/district is intentionally vague but needs to be clarified, because either 1- she had a psychiatric break or something and the whole thing is a mental health crisis. or 2- and as a teacher, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I did see many people say that she was an art teacher, they were outside doing a project, she got a radio call or somehow was told that there was a violent intruder in the building hurting people.

Maryland, especially after Uvalde, has adopted "avoid, deny, defend" - and teachers are trained to first and foremost avoid an intruder, and take their kids as far away as possible. Part of that training also includes that if you're actively fleeing an assailant with students, and you're outdoors like in the woods, to conceal or remove bright colored clothing that would identify you and the students more easily. So. If this lady really did believe that there was a violent intruder, and they were already outside of the building, it wouldn't make sense to bring the kids back in, but to flee. And hypothetically if she was wearing like a neon yellow t shirt, a bra would be preferable to that moving target running with the kids. Sadly I'm leaning toward mental health, but...

 

[OldCop]

What a bizarre story. I’m also leaning towards a mental health crisis. However, as someone who was in college in the late sixties/early seventies, it makes me think of the bomb threats that were constantly being called in as part of the VN war protests or by a student who didn’t want to take a midterm, etc. We lost a whole semester to the constant evacuations.
If the teacher did get some kind of radio call or other report of an intruder causing harm to students as reported by @teachermamalady, was this someone pranking the teacher or trying to get out of class? I think something like that would be more likely in a middle or high school than an elementary school.
In either case, this is a learning experience for that, (and other) school systems. As @FlossyMay said, how does a teacher run off with a whole class of kids? What are protocols for determining mental health status for teachers with tenure?
What about the need for a double check or confirmation system for reports of an intruder or other crisis within a school? Of course, it can’t be anything that would delay ensuring the safety of the students. Most schools have some type of official notification system or PA system that is school wide, but what about a call that comes into the teacher’s cell or individual radio? If, in fact, that was the case here, the whole class could be a target for a gunman waiting in the woods.
It sounds like this system has taken training very seriously and has attempted to make their students as safe as possible. Unfortunately, as we know, the best laid plans….
What is fortunate is that it seems no students were seriously injured during this incident and it has provided a new learning moment which will allow schools try to develop tighter game plans to seal the cracks in their policies.