Written by Sam Pansa and Amanda LaRiviere |
Picture credits via WMBF News and WRBL

On Tuesday, December 9th, The Morgan School was ordered to go into a modified lock down after the discovery of a bullet in Mr. Bergman’s classroom. The origin of the bullet was and still is unknown, even after the Connecticut State Police canine unit searched the school. Students were locked in their classrooms for about an hour before being released to go about the rest of their school day. Police and faculty are still working to get answers about the bullet. This is the third lock down within a few weeks (the first on Tuesday, December 2nd). Another lockdown took place on Tuesday, December 16th, when the panic alarm accidentally went off. People of the Morgan community have various opinions on how these multiple situations were handled.

We talked to Mrs. Hagness about what happened during the bullet incident last week, and she commented, “We still are considering information that can come from students.. We aren’t certain for how long it was in the back of the room. We don’t have any leads to where it could have come from.” The origin of the bullet is still unknown, and if anybody has any information that could further the investigation, then please speak up.

One of the many questions that circled around Morgan was why the lock down took so long to go into effect. Mrs Hagness explained,  “We determined that when the bullet was found, we wanted to get some information from students, and from there we went into lock down.” When asked if the lockdown procedures are effective or not, she replied, “I mean there’s always opportunity for the Monday morning quarterback, where you kind of look at something and go ‘well we could’ve done that differently’. I think that’s the benefit of being able to have people provide their feedback, students included, as to how we can best prepare. I think that often times…you look at certain situations and if people really don’t have the ability to have practice…a real event can be rather chaotic. So I do debrief with the staff at the end of the day, so that I can get their feedback on what they noticed and what can be changed.”

Senior Megan Quinn commented on what she found out from other students, “I heard from other people that were getting their bags checked; they felt they were all getting rounded up in the gym, and if someone actually did have a gun, they’d all be together, which isn’t safe.” Freshman Madison Seeger stated that she felt like the security lockdowns were safe. There are definitely different opinions on whether the situation was handled to make students feel at ease.

On Tuesday, December 16th, the third lockdown took place. Students and staff were alarmed when the new security system was accidentally tripped. Lockdown procedures were in effect for about 30 minutes. Reports came in that the history and math wings could barely hear the instructions coming from the system’s voice. Since the technology is new, faculty is using this as a learning experience in order to figure out what to fix.

Ever since the tragic incident in Newtown, CT, lockdowns need to be taken seriously, whether it is a false alarm or a real situation. The staff of The Morgan PawPrint send their condolences after the 2 year anniversary of Sandy Hook, on December 14th.

Students are welcome to e-mail their opinions on lockdowns to [email protected]