I lived in a pretty quiet area in Utah when I was in high school. The drive to school was about 35 minutes away, since my family lived outside of the main city in a rural area. I was never a fan of school as a teen, but i only had to tough it out a few more months since I was finishing up the second semester of my senior year. I was a pretty bad student, and I’d often skip class with my friends. We would always meet up at this McDonald’s a few minutes away, then usually drive together back to one of our houses while our parents were at work to hang out. However, I had been placed on academic probation in January, so I couldn’t afford to miss any more days unless I had a signed doctors note.
It was early on a Thursday afternoon when I was finishing up my food in lunch when a fight broke out in the cafeteria. One of the upper classman pranked one of the quieter, more shy freshman at lunch and pulled out his chair as he was sitting down to eat. I watched as he fell and hit his head on the table behind him, knocking him out. Right after this happened, a few people approached the kid who pulled the chair out and started fighting him. A huge commotion broke out as I watched a crowd full of people including teachers and students trying to break up the fight. After it settled down, I watched as The freshman stood up and Assumingly was taken to the nurses office to get checked out while the kid who pulled the chair out was probably taken to the principles office. I was glad the bully was being punished for this, but I had my doubts if he really would be or not. He was one of the teachers sons, so everyone always thought he got special treatment.
Not really knowing what happened after that, I continued on with my day and went to class, which was conveniently located right by the main lobby entrance where I would park my car. During my last period in sociology, I heard a startling announcement over the pa system in the school. Our principle informed all teachers and students that the school was being placed in lockdown. Most people assumed it was a drill, but I noticed the panic in his voice which made me worried that it wasn’t. We followed lockdown procedure and waited inside the classroom. The secretary’s office was directly to the left of the classroom and we could hear a woman screaming in the hallway right outside the office. She sounded manic, as she made threats to the principle and staff that she would kill them. I was definitely confused why some crazy woman would be doing this, As I felt worried that something bad was about to happen.
A few minutes went by and the screaming thankfully stopped. The principle announced to the school that we were being taken out of lockdown and we could resume class. I was relieved, since we only had 10 minutes left until school ended. Within minutes after that announcement, I heard the manic screaming start up again, but this time it was coming from a man. Then the announcement was made to the school once again that we were being placed into lockdown. Everyone was so confused as to what was going on. Only this time, the lockdown lasted longer. We all waited in the classroom in complete silence, trying to listen to what was going on outside the room. The man was screaming manically which sounded very similar to the woman who was doing the same thing prior. Finally, after another hour or so, the principle announced that we were not in lockdown and free to go home.
As I walked out, I noticed several cops standing around in the lobby area, speaking with some of the staff. With none of the students knowing what happened, we all went home, extremely confused. The next day, one of the students found the police report online and the word spread around the school pretty quickly. It turns out, the screaming coming from the hallway was from the parents of the freshman boy who’d been knocked out during lunch from hitting his head after being pranked by the older student. Apparently, the mom showed up to the school furious because the student was not suspended and her son sustained wounds and a concussion to the head, while the student who pulled out the chair only got detention, probably because he was one of the teachers sons. Once the mother found that out, she became enraged and came into the school screaming at the staff. She eventually left, which is when the lockdown was lifted. Once she was removed from the property, she told the father who then stormed into the school with a gun threatening to kill the student and teachers who were only giving him a detention for the prank. He ended up assaulting the principle and beating him up pretty badly, but no one was killed or had any lasting injuries.
The parents who caused the huge scene were known as really nice people, but they were enraged hearing that they’re son was being bullied and there were no significant repercussions for the bully. The situation could’ve been a lot worse, but I’m glad that nobody was killed in the end.