A phoned in threat at an Alamo Heights Elementary School is still under investigation.Cambridge Elementary school was placed on moderate lockdown Monday morning after a threatening call was received by the school's receptionist.
"The individual made a comment about a weapon and coming to the campus to shoot children," said Dick Smith, a spokesman for Alamo Heights Independent School District.
The receptionist immediately handed the phone over to an administrator, who talked with the caller while the campus called the police. Police nearby were at the campus within three minutes and the school was quickly put into lockdown.
"The administrator stayed on the phone for about 10 minutes with this caller asking them questions, seeing if he could offer some kind of help or someone the person could talk to. Then the police took over the phone call and continued talking to the caller for about 30 minutes," said Smith.
Police from Alamo Heights Police Department, San Antonio Police Department, Terrell Hills Police Department, and the FBI swept the campus with K-9s and gave parents the okay to pick up children around 1:20 Monday afternoon, after they deemed the threat 'not credible'.
Police were unable to identify who or find where the caller was, but they do believe there is a unique distinction about him.
"They have suggested that this is linked to other threatening call-ins at other locations. I don't know the basis for that decision, but it could possibly be the sound of the voice, the manner in which he approached the conversation, or possibly also the caller id number," said Smith.
The threat comes just days after the massive elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut where 20 children and 6 adults were brutally shot to death, and several parents stood outside the barriers surrounding the school with worry in their faces and tears in their eyes as they watched police sweep their children's school.
"It's just so scary and nerve racking and you're hopeless that you as a parent can do nothing but just hope and pray that they're safe," said a mother who grasped her children's hands as she walked them home. "We felt so hopeless. Especially because you send your kids to school and you do your best to take care of them, and then someone comes and does this and you have absolutely no control over it."
For other parents, the whole situation was a feeling that what they had just watched happen to parents in Newtown a few days ago was happening to them.
"Because of everything that happened on Friday my child has been having nightmares, so she had already been worried about coming to school, and then this happens," said another parent.
The district says they will be keeping police present at all of their schools for the remainder of the week as a precaution.
By: Marissa A. Wagner
Monday, December 17, 2012 6:00 p.m.
