All Clear At Yorktown High Following Lockdown After Phone Threat

Arlington VA

10 February, 2022

2:31 PM

Description

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County Police lifted the lockdown at Yorktown High School shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday, according to a post on the department's official Twitter account. Police found no evidence of a crime, no arrests were made and no injuries were reported at the school. Yorktown was placed on lockdown shortly before 12 noon, after receiving a threat that there was going to be a "shoot up" at the school. Police responded to the scene to investigate, as students remained in their classrooms with their teachers. Police began evacuating students shortly before 3 p.m. The students were bused to the Knights of Columbus, located at 5115 Little Falls Road, where parents could pick them up. Due to the evacuation, buses from Taylor, Tuckahoe, Cardinal, Jamestown, Discovery and Nottingham were delayed, according to an APS post on Twitter. Patch editor Mark Hand was outside the school, talking to parents, as the evacuation got underway. One parent told him that they received a text from their child before they received the text message from the school. None of the parents gathered outside Yorktown knew exactly why the lockdown was declared. A 10th grader told Hand shortly before 4 p.m. that students were not told what happened and why they were evacuated. She said she wasn't afraid. It was the first lockdown of school year at Yorktown. Her mother received both a text and email about the lockdown and was able to pick up her daughter at the school. Students gathered on football field after getting escorted there by teachers. (Mark Hand/Patch) As of 4 p.m., many students were still inside the school waiting for the police to dismiss them. "We are all stir crazy, but we are all fine," a teacher told Patch shortly after 4 p.m. Arlington County Police closed off access to Yorktown High School, which remained on lockdown around 3 p.m. Students were being shuttled to the Knights of Columbus, where parents can be reunited with them. (Mark Hand/Patch) (Google Maps)