JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A code red lockdown at a Duval County middle school has some parents asking about the district’s policy on cellphones.
The lockdown was prompted by reports that a student had pulled a gun out of his backpack inside the cafeteria of Oceanway Middle School on Tuesday.
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The school was placed on full lockdown status for about 40 minutes as authorities investigated and later found that there was no gun on campus.
The school notified parents of the situation, but some told News4Jax that the news did not come fast enough and that students in certain classrooms were not allowed access to their cellphones.
“I guess that’s good that the way they responded and they went into lockdown, but at the same time, I think in our response time to that is way too long because and I had no way of getting a hold of my daughter,” said Alasandra Hansen, the parent of an Oceanway Middle student. “Like that was the terrifying part for me, like, if something was actually wrong.”
The district’s student code of conduct doesn’t outright ban the use of cellphones unless they are found to cause a disturbance to the classroom environment.
The code says phones should be turned off during the school day and stored out of sight but provides an expectation for certain emergency situations.
