It’s 2:55 pm on May 2nd, a Monday as routine as any other. Seventh period is wrapping up and the computer lab is full of chatting students waiting for the bell to ring. Conversations subside as the public-address system beeps.

“Teachers, please exclu– excuse the interruption,” stammers the voice. “All staff lock your doors and stay down. This is not a drill.”

I can feel the temperature in the room drop ten degrees. I watch other students hastily turn off their monitors, yank out their chairs, and crawl under the tables in front of them. I mirror them, robotically curling up under the table and hugging my knees as my head whirls with chaotic thoughts.

Those of us who were on campus during the event remember the worries and fears that plagued us during those few long minutes. Is this really happening? They won’t get me, will they? Is it all just a bad dream?

Now that it’s over, we can dissect exactly what happened. It was a normal day in the front office, said Vice Principal Matt Kolda, when a visitor walked in the door and announced, “There’s a guy out there with a gun!” Principal Gonzalez and Vice Principal Kolda stepped outside and saw that indeed there was an individual who appeared to be carrying a firearm walking on Monroe St. toward Wilcox. The principal called 911 and the school went into immediate lockdown.

“The police were here within minutes, they were extremely fast,” remembers Mr. Kolda. “Every other part of it felt like it took several hours, but I feel like there was never a moment the police weren’t here.” Officers quickly surrounded and disarmed the suspect, who offered no resistance. And the weapon? Closer inspection revealed that it was just a BB gun.

Although many students wonder who that person was, neither the Wilcox staff nor the Santa Clara Police Department can legally disclose that information. The SCPD was contacted for this story, but they denied the Scribe access to the incident report because the suspect was a juvenile. Wilcox administration did not furnish any further details beyond what Vice Principal Kolda offered during an interview.

The school lockdown was lifted just after 3:00, less than ten minutes after it began. To Mr. Kolda, those tense minutes seemed to last forever. “The timeline is crazy–I mean, in my head it took hours because it was so scary, but really it was ten minutes max.”

        However, those ten minutes held a lot of confusion for many Wilcox staff, for several reasons. School emergencies used to be classified as a Code Red or Code Blue, red signifying a more immediate danger. But the new terms are “Active Shooter” (the equivalent of a Code Red) and “Shelter-in-Place” (the new version of a Code Blue). What Wilcox experienced was a Shelter-in-Place.

The protocol for a Shelter-in-Place changed along with the name. A Code Red or Code Blue used to be lifted when the teacher got a phone call from the office with a special code number. “This was put into place in case the announcements over the PA were made under dress,” explained English teacher Ian Jackson, who also advises the Scribe. “That means if an active shooter had a gun to Mrs. MacDonald’s head, forcing her to say everything’s okay.” But after last year the precaution was scrapped, said Mr. Kolda, because when police arrive on scene they don’t know the code.

Mr. Kolda is adamant that teachers have the final say on the safest course of action. “If a teacher feels any hesitancy to release students for any reason, there’s no magic word or code, but it’s the job of law enforcement to convince the teacher that it’s safe.”

Shelter-in-Place is different from Active Shooter, in which the best protocol is run-hide-defend. “But whenever a teacher decides run-hide-defend is appropriate, we’re going to support that as an administration,” added Kolda. “There was a teacher who took his students and ran off campus! That is great! Get them out of here! The teacher’s not going to get written up for that! Whatever the teacher needs to do to keep the kids safe, we’re going to support it.”

Another question that stumped staff was what exactly they should do in the event of a Shelter-in-Place. The Wilcox Site Comprehensive Safety Plan (available in print in the library) comes to the rescue. Once sheltered in a secure room, teachers should “continue instructional / work activities until the situation resolves or you are directed to do otherwise.” So if your teacher continued their lesson during the lockdown, they were following the rules. But obviously the rules don’t matter as much as staying safe. Most teachers determined it was a better idea to treat the event like an Active Shooter, with an attitude of “better safe than sorry.”

“We are not mandated to do a drill on Shelter-in-Place, but my guess is after this we are going to start doing so,” Mr. Kolda said. The Wilcox community thanks our staff for keeping students safe and calm, as well as the Santa Clara Police Department for their timely response and assistance.

“The SCPD were awesome,” concluded Kolda. “They were phenomenal.”