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.”
Yes, but it's now called "culinary arts" and "family science". BARF.
In cooking class, yes it does. Remember this is middle school, so even the cooking and shop classes are going to be pretty basic. I never took "home ec" as we called it, way back when, but my brother did take "bachelor living". He made a nice throw pillow that AFAIK, is still around, 30 or so years later. In high school, my dad made a nice chair-side stand (with an extra shelf in addition to it's top) that remained in use in our home until at least the 80s, and which is probably still in decent shape, provided that the youngest grandkid, aka Tiger, didn't destroy it, and I don't' think he did. All I ever made was a rather poorly finished but functional gun rack (3 long guns stored vertically), a wall-mounted duck (with 3-D metal wing) decoration and a really sickly pig cutting board. I was so ashamed of the latter, which was supposed to be for my mother or grandmother, that I made two good ones at home, with a skill saw instead of hand saw. Those cutting boards stayed in use for decades. I think Mom may *still* be using the one I made for Grandma. Don't know what happened to the "Razorback", which is what the first one looked like. :)
BTW, I also took small engine mechanics, auto shop, and electronic shop courses in high school. I now have an MSEE with about 90% of the graduate credits required for a PhD, and my brother has a BA in business adminstration. My wife, who also took Home Ec, has a PhD, my daughter (no home ec AFAIK) has a JD while the other daughter, who probably did take home ec, has a master's and goes back for her PhD this fall.
Eat a 30 inch burrito, and you'll be making a run alright.... but I doubt the border will be your destination. :)
It's still around, although they usually call it something else. Culinary Arts, Bachelor Living, stuff like that. I believe this school called if Culinary Arts.
He may have mastered the art of making great burritos. The suject was "culinary arts" and this was a middle school (formerly known as Junior High, well almost)
BTW, my father teaches at a high school where the kids are trained in how to repair aircraft engines. many good MEs and EEs come out of that shop.
A 30 inch burrito, huh?
So this was to be a chemical gas attack apparently...
Bones
Too funny!!
Three cheers if he makes great burritos. But "culinary arts" in middle school? Please.
How do the liberals manage to live in constant fear? Since stress like this often contributes to cancer, you think they'd be dropping like flies..
Thanks!
I'll have to check it out!
Oh no OH NO! Its a weapon of GAS destruction!
I watched Napoleon Dynamite wth my 18 and 24-year old nephews last month. I don't know which was more "interesting", the movie or their reaction to the movie. lol.
Was it a Wendy's burrito?
Way to go Barney! More and more the LEO level of competence is unnerving. Its like the Keystone cops come alive with new and improved clothes, weapons, and revenue schemes.
my homeschooled kids quite frequently go to a friends house to do school... they like it when she has "gun day", they take all the toy weapons they can find (guns, knives, swords, spears, shields, etc.) and have good-ol games of cops/robbers, cowboys/indians, pirates, etc. they all get a long great, sometime they get hurt but never their friendships.
the joy of letting kids be kids. w/o fear.
i'll have to suggest "burrito day".
Maybe it was a weapon of ass destruction!
And where 70% of the students think Manual Labor is the president of Mexico.
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