Beverly High lockdown ends

BEVERLY October 29, 2008 03:32 pm

— High school students were dismissed at 3 p.m. today after the discovery of less than a dozen bullets prompted a lockdown that kept them in the building all day.
Local and state police responded to the school shortly after 10:52 a.m. when a student found the live .22 caliber long-rifle bullets in a bathroom, police Capt. Alan Petersen said in a press conference outside the school with Superintendent James Hayes. A search of the school turned up no weapons, and no one was injured, Petersen said. He would not say which bathroom the live rounds were discovered in.
Police, including a state K-9 unit, broke up into eight search teams to go through the school.
Students were kept inside, and many called their parents on cell phones. The school also put out word to parents using an automated telephone notification system, Petersen said.
A number of parents gathered outside the school on Sohier Road. At one point, a Beverly police officer could be seen entering the building with a rifle.
Nadine Lusardi got a call from her son Victor, a senior, and he sounded fine.
"I'm just grateful they have cell phones," she said. "If I didn't hear from him, I'd really be freaked out."
Petersen said high schoolers are normally dismissed at 2:33 p.m. To accommodate the late dismissal today, Briscoe Middle School got out early, at 2:33 instead of its normal 3 p.m. The buses then went to the high school to bring those students home.
Please see Thursday's edition of The Salem News for more on this story.