UPDATE: 12:11pm- From Bob Mosier, AACPS spokesman, the building is no longer on “secure the building” status.
Hillsmere Elementary School was locked down today due to a suspicious person in the area.
According to Anne Arundel County Police spokesman, Justin Mulcahy, the department received a call from the school at 7:40am about a suspicious person on a bicycle that was asking questions about how to access the school. By the time police arrived, the subject had left the area. Police notified Annapolis City Police to be on the lookout for the subject and committed an officer to remain in the area in case he returned. Mulcahy stressed that there was no crime committed and it was just a call for a suspicious person.
Nearly 3 hours later, the school sent out an automated telephone message advising that the school was on lockdown until given the all-clear by Anne Arundel County Police.
While the school referred to it as a lockdown, AACPS spokesman Bob Mosier said it was a “secure the building” precaution and not a lockdown. Mosier also stated that the same individual was present at the school yesterday and asked for a tour of the school. His appearance again this morning raised the suspicion of the administrators.
Both the police and school have emphatically said that there was no threat made to any of the students, staff or the building.
As to the nearly 3 hour delay in notifying parents of the lockdown/secure the building, Mosier said, “we were working with police throughout the morning. School starts at 9:05, so the priority as students arrived was to communicate verbally with parents dropping off students and to get the students into the building and get the school day under way.”
