Lake Worth district middle school placed on lockdown after student receives photo of gun
A Lake Worth district middle school in Fort Worth was placed on lockdown Thursday after police and Lake Worth ISD said a school resource officer received reports of someone possibly near the school with a gun.
Lake Worth police said there was no active threat but a large police presence was on the campus of Lucyle Collins Middle School on Thursday afternoon.
According to a police incident detail report from Fort Worth police, which includes preliminary information provided to officers responding to a 911 call, someone used AirDrop, a Bluetooth feature on Apple products, to send a photo of a gun to a student’s cell phone. Because of the nature of AirDrop, the sender and recipient have to be close to each other.
Fort Worth police responded to the call around 1:20 p.m. Thursday. The police report included a note that “Lake Worth [police] has all their units at school.”
Fort Worth police said the photograph showed a student standing in front of the school holding a firearm but that school officials believe the picture was “probably manipulated and not was not real.”
Lake Worth police announced on Twitter that “out of an abundance of caution” they would conduct a methodical search of the campus.
There were plans to evacuate students to a different location to be reunited with parents, according to Lake Worth police. About 30 minutes later, Lake Worth police confirmed there was no threat at the school and that district officials were working on procedures for how students would be released from the school Thursday.
The school district said on Twitter that the lockdown was transitioned to a hold after police confirmed there was no active threat at the school and that students were released as normal with an increased police presence.
Police from Sansom Park also responded to the school, according to Fort Worth police.
A spokesperson for the district did not immediately respond to a Star-Telegram request for additional information.
This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 4:09 PM.