Gun scare spurs lockdown in Lehi

LEHI — A SWAT team scoured the classrooms of a locked-down Lehi Junior High School on Friday after a 911 caller told police a gun-toting boy was roaming the neighborhood.

Even though neither a gunman nor a weapon were found by police officers — and it's believed the boy with the gun was a pheasant hunter — parents and school officials say the precautions were well worth taking.

"You just can't assume it's not real," said Lehi mother Jill Clements, tears in her eyes. Like many other parents, Clements waited at the driveway to the junior high for nearly two hours, waiting for access to the school and a reunion with her 12-year-old daughter, Abby. "You have to assume it's real."

The incident started Friday morning when a school neighbor called police to report that he saw a 12- to 14-year-old boy who was wearing a dark jacket and a dark baseball cap walking north toward the school.

The neighbor reported that the boy was carrying a shotgun covered in either a sock or a pillowcase, said Lehi Police Sgt. Darren Paul.

After talking with school administrators, police officers put the school in "lockdown" mode and the nearby Sego Lily Elementary School at 550 E. 900 North on "high alert," said Alpine School District spokeswoman Jerrilyn Mortensen.

"As an administration," Mortensen said, "we take a situation which could be a threatening situation very seriously."

A string of school shootings across the country has many parents and administrators on alert.

On Sept. 27, a 53-year-old Colorado man held female students hostage before killing one girl, then himself after SWAT teams stormed the school. Two days later, a high school student shot his principal near Madison, Wis. An Oct. 2 shooting at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pa., left five girls dead and a quiet community in shock.

A school on "lockdown" means police officers are inside the building and people are not allowed to enter or exit the building. Sego Lily was on "high alert," meaning children and adults were allowed to enter and exit through one door that was monitored by staff.

Children weren't allowed to go outside to play until police notified the school there wasn't a threat.

Two hours after the 911 call — and after police stormed the neighborhood — a boy approached police and said he had been in the area at the time, walking to his friend's house with a gun.