Police: Boy with weapon causes lockdown at Lake Zurich schools
Lake Zurich police say a boy was taken into custody after it was believed he had an unspecified weapon inside a middle school and caused a lockdown of two buildings.
Authorities said Lake Zurich Middle School South and Isaac Fox Elementary School, which are connected, were ordered into lockdown mode Tuesday morning. Police Cmdr. David Bradstreet said both Cuba Road schools no longer were locked down in the afternoon.
Police said in a release they were called at 10:08 a.m. by “a representative” of Middle School South, who reported the student supposedly had brought a weapon into the building. Both schools are part of Lake Zurich Unit District 95.
“The representative confronted the student regarding the allegation and the student ran out of an office area while being questioned,” authorities said in the statement. “The student’s whereabouts were not immediately known, which prompted District 95 officials to put Lake Zurich Middle School South and Isaac Fox Elementary School into lockdown for the safety of students and staff.”
Bradstreet said it’s not immediately clear who was alerted about the student having the weapon or how it came to anyone’s attention. Police declined to specify the type of weapon involved.
After fleeing the building. police said, the juvenile was seized in about 30 minutes. The boy was walking along Cuba Road in Lake Zurich when he was picked up by an officer and the weapon was recovered from a backpack, according to authorities.
Investigators don’t believe the student had planned to commit any violence at the school, Bradstreet said. He said the boy had planned to give the weapon to a Middle School South friend who could not obtain it on his own.
“The student did not make any threats to harm students or school officials,” Lake Zurich police said in the statement.
District 95 followed proper lockdown protocol and quickly summoned police, Bradstreet said. He said District 95 kept parents in the loop by sending text messages and emails.
“Everything went the way it’s supposed to,” Bradstreet said.