Four disconnected 911 calls led to Aquebogue Elementary lockdown March 12, police chief says

Four disconnected 911 calls from a 911-only phone near Aquebogue Elementary School activated the police response and school lockdown on March 12, according to Riverhead Police Chief Ed Frost.

The calls were made shortly before 1 p.m., Frost said Friday. The caller sounded like a young female, with other young females audible in the background, he said. Each call disconnected.

A 911-only phone is a cellphone without active wireless service that can still be used to place emergency calls. Such phones can still provide location information to emergency responders, though the data may not be precise enough to show exactly where a caller is, especially in or around a building.

The phone’s location data placed it near the front of the school, Frost said, but police could not determine whether the calls came from inside the building, just outside it or from a nearby location.

“So out of an abundance of caution, obviously, we went,” Frost said. “We called the school, working with school security, and we walked the school to make sure there were no threats.” Police also searched school grounds and checked the area surrounding the school.

No threat was found, Frost said.

While the outcome was “best case scenario,” Aquebogue Elementary School literacy coach and vice president of the Riverhead Central Faculty Association told the school board at its March 17 meeting, the events that day underscored how different a lockdown is from the drills regularly conducted in schools. 

“Those in a lockdown firsthand know it is significantly different from any drills that we routinely practice each year,” Simoes said. 

“The unknown triggers vivid thoughts of grim realities that we have seen happen in schools across the country, the fear of possible physical physical threat clings to every minute, probably every second that we sit there,” she said, focusing on “just maintaining calm, protecting the mental well being of our students, and just making sure that everybody is safe.” 

Safety of students is the number one priority of educators, Simoes said.

“Safety is accomplished through clear systems and persistent action by the building leaders and their team of staff members,” she said. “[It] really relies on the systems as well as the swift decision-making” by building leadership and excellent communication with staff throughout the event.  “This kept the staff informed in real time,” she said, which kept the staff calm, “and in turn, the staff was able to keep the students calm.”

The incident, the response of the Aquebogue team and what was seen in the halls of Aquebogue in the days following the incident highlight something that is “so much bigger than the action plan.” It is something “often overlooked or just goes unseen,” she said, “the supportive school culture” built by school leadership at Aquebogue. “It’s founded on compassion, positivity and teamwork,” Simoes said. 

“All too often, the Board of Education, I think, hears about what goes wrong in the district. So I just wanted to be here with the faculty of Aquebogue today to make sure we bring attention to something that went really right on March 12.,” Simoes said.

School board President James Scudder, who is an elementary level music teacher, commended the Aquebogue staff. “I can’t even imagine the thoughts that were going through everyone’s head,” in a potentially life or death situation, he said. “Every time I’ve done the drill, I know it’s a drill,” Scudder said. He thanked the Aquebogue staff for their response.

Superintendent Bob Hagan also praised the Aquebogue staff for taking care of the children, “doing the right thing, making sure everything was done exactly” as per the action plan. “I can tell you this right now: I’m very proud to be your superintendent,” Hagan said.

Parent Jasmine Corwin, whose 9-year-old daughter was in school that day, grew emotional recalling what it was like to receive the lockdown notification that day.

“Being a parent in that school, getting that message…my heart just stopped,” Corwin told the board.

She said her daughter had been at recess and was brought into the kitchen, an area students do not typically use for lockdown drills.

“The kitchen staff opened the doors, let them in” and gave them snacks and drinks,”  Corwin said.

Corwin said she talked with her daughter that night about what she had experienced and asked the next day whether she felt safe returning to school.

“And she was so excited to go back to school,” Corwin said.

She said that reaction spoke to the sense of safety created by Miltenberg, Kenney and the school staff.

“I can attest how much of a community this school is,” she said, adding that school leaders answered parents’ questions and checked on families afterward to make sure they were okay.