A lockdown announcement took place during homeroom at approximately 10:32 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 30, right after the first homeroom bell rang. After the lockdown alarm and pre-recorded announcement finished, it was immediately followed by an “all clear” recording. Principal Jeremy Christian then used the intercom to say that the building was safe and reminded students to get to homeroom on time.
For senior Eloise Gnant, Christian’s decision to use the false lockdown as a reminder for students to be punctual “just didn’t feel right. It felt like an overuse of [the alarm] and didn’t make me feel like I could trust the next lockdown.”
This incident marks the second false lockdown of the 2023-2024 school year, the first of which shocked the school community and prompted an investigation on Friday, Sept. 22. According to Illinois General Assembly, the School Safety Drill Act mandates that “all lockdown drills must be announced in advance to all school personnel and students prior to the commencement of the drill.” The Skokie Police Department also receives advance notification.
Niles West’s Director of Security Al Lopez clarified that ordinarily, “there will never be an unannounced lockdown drill. Normally we wouldn’t test [the PA system] during school days, so it wouldn’t impact the school day.”
Christian explained that the incident was due to a mistake he made with the PA system.
“It was a mistake that when I entered the code, the lockdown message played. When I entered the code to actually announce our regularly scheduled announcements, the lockdown message played and I’m not sure what I did or what I hit, but obviously something happened,” Christian said.
In response, two separate emails were sent out, one to students and one to parents containing the same message. A phone call to parents was also sent out. The email, which came from Christian, was sent at 11:30 a.m. and explained why the alarm sounded and included a timeline.
Christian went on to explain that Interstate was on campus and was making adjustments to the office area because Lopez noticed that speakers were needed. Interstate is currently contracted to provide intercom support. Although the lockdown was neither a test nor a drill, Christian believes that students must treat them as if they were real.
“Interstate placed speakers in the ceiling in the principal’s and main office. Interstate added a volume adjustment to the offices. Interstate wanted to complete a test, however, I asked them to postpone until after I completed the announcements. Once the bell rang, I entered the code and the emergency lockdown played. The lockdown was cancelled, how, I am not sure, but I also used this as an opportunity to have a drill,” Christian said.
Lopez confirmed that additional speakers were needed in the main office, and Interstate was on campus troubleshooting prior to the false lockdown.
“Where Mr. Christian’s office is is a fairly new part of the building, so when they built it, they didn’t put the speakers in for the whole PA system. So, in the event of any type of communication, whether it be announcements or any type of drill, Christian could not hear anything,” Lopez said. “So the company that put them in, they don’t know exactly what happened, so they are trying to figure out what triggered this alarm to go off.”
Christian acknowledged that Niles West has experienced other erroneous bells.
“Using this opportunity to have an unannounced drill was not the best decision on my part. I take accountability for this action. However, it is deeply important to me that our students are in their assigned location at the appropriate time,” Christian said.
Thursday’s lockdown sparked fear for many students.
“I thought [the lockdown] was very scary and very nerve-wracking because a lot of shootings in schools have been happening recently. I was scared, I was texting my mom as I was worried,” Gnant said.
Later on the same day, students recalled seeing Christian apologizing to students in the cafeteria. He also visited several classrooms to check in on students and faculty.
“It wasn’t a test, but, whenever that lockdown announcement plays, I don’t want our students to not take it seriously because we never know if something is serious or not, so now I have decided that anytime something goes wrong with that lockdown, I want our students to take it seriously. So, I saw a lot of our students that were not in their classes or even wandering the halls, and that is not okay. That’s why I wanted to treat it like a drill,” Christian said.
Christian fielded concerns from students, staff, and community members, and reiterated his commitment to make needed repairs.
“This was totally the principal’s fault, and I take accountability for that. I get emotional thinking about it because I want all of our staff and most importantly our students to know that I care about them, and when they get upset, that makes me feel sad. My job is to protect them, so I want to see how we can stop this and I can promise you we will fix it,” Christian said.
