Posted on 04/29/2005 1:05:10 PM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece
A concerned citizen spotted a male juvenile carrying a suspiciously concealed item into Marshall Junior High School early Thursday morning.
Police were called. The school was locked down. Adjacent streets were closed and law officers were perched on roofs with weapons.
The drama ended about two hours later when the suspicious item was identified:
A 30-inch burrito, prepared as an extra-credit assignment and wrapped inside tinfoil and a white T-shirt.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” school Principal Diana Russell said after the mystery was solved.
“Overall, I’d say we had a good learning day.”
The incident began about 8:30 a.m., Russell said.
The school was locked down — no one allowed to enter or leave and students locked inside their classrooms — until police searched the premises and determined there was no immediate danger.
Russell said the student’s burrito was discovered after she brought the school together in the auditorium to explain what she knew about the series of events.
“The kid was sitting there as I’m describing this (citizen report of a student with a suspicious package) and he’s thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re talking about my burrito.’”
After the meeting, which included students and parents, Russell said the student, Michael Morrissey, approached her.
“He said, ‘I think I’m the person they saw,’” Russell said. “He said, ‘It was my extra-credit project. I put a white T-shirt over it because I wanted it to stay warm.’”
Within minutes after the citizen report, representatives from New Mexico State Police, Clovis police and the Curry County Sheriff’s Department were on the scene.
“We’ve trained for incidents just like this — the training just kicked in,” said Sgt. Jim Schoeffel of the Clovis Police Department.
Schoeffel said the streets closest to the school, Main and Commerce Way, were blocked off as officers positioned themselves on the roof and around points of exit and entry at the school.
Parents, alerted to the incident by a local radio report, descended on the school, where they initially found little information.
More than 30 parents congregated in the Lowe’s Grocery Store parking lot adjacent from Marshall High. Visibly shaken, they gathered around in a semi-circle, straining their necks, awaiting news.
Heather Black, who has a son at the school, echoed the sentiments of the crowd.
“There needs to be security before the kids walk through the door,” she said.
Russell said about 75 students left the school with their parents soon after the lockdown was called off. At the time, the suspicious item had not been located.
Russell praised police for their efforts and school officials for following procedures properly.
She said she learned several things from the incident, primarily related to informing parents. She said the school received multiple telephone calls from parents who talked with school secretaries who had little information.
“All they (secretaries) were told is that it was a code blue (lockdown) and they didn’t know if it was a drill or not,” Russell said.
“If I had it to do over again, we would have alerted the secretaries that we had an actual threat ... so we would not come across like we were trying to hide something.”
Russell said “98 percent” of the parents were understanding and supportive of school officials, but “we had a handful that were very verbal and one had to be escorted away by police.”
“But the bottom line,” Russell said, “at the end of the day, I feel pretty good about our response. This worked.”
This will date me...but, oh for the simpler times. I lived about two miles from my high school and had a trap line that I checked when walking to school. I carried a .22 rifle, the principal and teachers knew it, I took it to the teachers union (lounge) where they checked it to make sure it wasn't loaded and picked it up there every night to check traps on the way home. No one even thought about this as being abnormal. (sigh) wish it were 1965 again.
In my day we would have had this assignment in a class called Home Economics. Does this subject exist anymore?
Upon first reading of the title, I was thinking this was an article of gastronomic proportions.
When I was a kid we made plaster volcanos. Kinda says something about our culture today, no?
I thought we weren't supposed to post articles from The Onion.
Then you haven't been to Trona, California.
Times have changed. In the midwest area a while back a boy got suspended and arrested for having his bow in his vehicle. He was a memeber of an archery club and had some field pointed arrows in his car so he would not have to go out of his way back home after school to get them for practice.
isn't there a rule against drunk school officials?
This is a real gasser.
Holy frijole!
Home Economics class, perhaps? (Or whatever it's called now)
Was the "concerned citizen" named Barney Fife or Gladys Kravitz?
Then you haven't been to Trona, California
I LIVE in California and I've never even HEARD of Trona, CA?!?!
Oh for simpler times! I graduated in 1977.
Dangerous item. Mix some sharp cheddar and beans and onions for an accelerant, you will have a stomache bomb:)
in one of my spanish classes in high school I earned extra credit for making enough spanish rice for the whole class. additionally, it could have been for a home economics class (now called "consumer sciences" in most places.)
Well put!
It's a lovely spot on the road from Ridgecrest to Death Valley.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.