New Details On Bret Harte Lockdown
Angels Camp, CA — Angels Camp Police are now calling what led to the school’s lockdown a possible “prank” phone call.
Angels Camp Police Sgt. Steven Poortinga says, “The call may have been a prank, and the police department takes a threat to the safety of school campus and the students very seriously, so our response to that was based on the information we had at the time.”
The call regarding an armed person on the Bret Harte High School campus came in around 9:10 this morning. Sgt. Poortinga says the call was “very generic”, and the caller did not specify a type of gun, and hung up before questions could be asked.
The PD says school staff was notified and the campus was immediately placed on lockdown. Sgt. Poortinga would not give exact details on the lockdown, saying, “As far as where they [students] were moved and how they were moved, I’m not going to provide that information. We follow our policy for an active shooter. I won’t go into what our policy actually is, just because of the security of it and the type of incident that occurred.”
Law enforcement units were already on the Bret Harte Campus for the “Every 15 Minutes” program, which was a simulation of a DUI accident. Units from the Angels Camp Police Department, Calaveras Sheriff’s Department, and the California Highway Patrol searched the campus and Sgt. Pootinga stressed they found “no threat or person on the campus that was armed.”
Once the campus was secured, with all students and staff accounted for, police determined it was safe to return to the normally scheduled day. No students or staff were injured in the incident.
The Angels Camp Police Department is asking for anyone with information regarding the identity of the caller to contact them at (209) 736-2567 or acpd@angelscamp.gov.
