PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A lockdown has been lifted at John Bartram High School in the city's southwest, and students and staff were dismissed early, after police detained two young men in response to a report of a gun inside the building on Wednesday, according to school district officials.
Around 8:30 a.m., students were entering the school for a scheduled half-day when the weapons detection system alerted a school safety officer to what appeared to be a gun in a backpack, said Monique Braxton, school district spokeswoman.
“The Office of School Safety officer noticed the gun — it was the outline of a gun that appeared to be real. Keep in mind, at this point, we don’t know if it was a real weapon. It could have been a BB gun. It could have been a plastic gun.”
No gun was recovered, though, and school officials declared a lockdown while Philadelphia police searched the building.
“I was chillin’ in first period. Boom, lockdown,” said Bartram junior Khalif Bradley.
He says he's been through this before.
“This isn’t my first time being in lockdown, so I’m thinking it’s something sweet, it’s a half-day, it’s probably going to be — they ain’t going to find nothing. Thirty minutes go by. We’re still in lockdown. Another 30 minutes go by. We’re still in lockdown.”
Bradley said he and his friends just boarded up the door and waited.
“It wasn’t scary. ... We were just in there.”
Two students were detained for questioning. Police searched the school, classroom by classroom. No gun was found.
Braxton said students were dismissed even earlier than scheduled, just after 11 a.m. As students filed out of the building, they passed through the weapons detection system again.
“They went through on the way in. They went through on the way out. Because the Office of School Safety officers, Philadelphia police, were unable to find a gun on the campus.”
In a letter to families, school principal Brian Johnson explained that it is district policy to put a school on lockdown when a suspected weapon is detected and to notify the Police Department. He emphasized: At no point were students in danger.