Lockdown Over

Roughly 150 students were on lockdown inside New Mexico School for the Arts after somebody claimed to have a gun

Relieved parents visit students after lockdown at NMSA. (Thomas Ragan)

By Thomas Ragan

A student at New Mexico School for the Arts reported receiving an anonymous text Wednesday from somebody claiming to have a gun, which led to a late morning lockdown at the charter high school in downtown Santa Fe.

The event caused worry among parents and a bit of inconvenience for motorists as a few blocks around the school were cordoned off, but within a couple of hours, all was resolved smoothly, and police say they never found a weapon.

Zacciah Hanson, a senior whose focus is theater, says he wasn't inside the school when the announcement of a lockdown came over the intercom at 11 am, but his sister, sophomore Bianca Masters, was inside.

Although he was concerned for her welfare, he tells SFR his gut reaction was that it was probably some sort of prank, which is common these days at both public and private schools.

"I'm used to this sort of stuff," explains the 17-year-old Hanson, who says he's been going through lockdown drills since grade school and for the past three years at the state-chartered high school that opened in August 2010.

"Even though a shooting or something bad can always happen, and it's not out of the realm of possibility, deep down I always have faith that it's not going to happen in Santa Fe," Hanson says, as he stood at the corner of West Alameda Street and Paseo de Peralta, just a few hundred yards from the school.

Just before 1 pm, after two hours had transpired and the cops left, their tactical vests in tow, school officials allowed dozens of students and parents back into the school.

The school's student enrollment reaches 200 and the majority were inside, basically confined to their classrooms for two hours as the pandemonium played out and a bomb-sniffing canine came and went.

The Santa Fe Police Department says it will continue the investigation and thanked the students, staff and faculty for the help.

"The school has been thoroughly searched and campus is safe," writes the school's communications and events coordinator, Emily Wolf, in a widely distributed email. "The school day will proceed as usual."


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