WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, March 22, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Granger High School and West Lake Junior High were placed on shelter-in-place for about an hour on Thursday morning as police responded to a nearby incident involving shots fired.
The shots were fired at about 10:30 a.m., near 3300 South and Lemay Avenue, according to Sgt. Scott Arnold, West Valley City Police Department.
“There were two groups of juveniles that appeared to be in some sort of altercation,” Arnold said. “As the groups were separating, shots were fired from one of the groups toward the other.”
WVCPD officers arrived on the scene after the juveniles had left, but did find shell casings to support claims that five or six shots had been fired, Arnold said.
“We have located involved parties from both groups of individuals and are currently conducting our investigation with them to determine what occurred,” Arnold said. No one was injured, he said, but it did appear a house and car had been hit by bullets.
Arnold said at the scene it had not yet been determined whether the juveniles involved in the altercation were students from either of the schools put on shelter in place.
Ben Horsley, spokesman for the Granite School District, said schools are put on shelter-in-place protocol when there is possible danger in a nearby area, off campus. A lockdown would be called for if the threat were closer to the schools.
Horsley said quite often, students who create dangerous situations near schools are former students.
“If they are current students, it’s a clear violation of safe schools, and we will take appropriate action and remove them from traditional campuses,” Horsley said.
At no point were students at either school in any danger, he said.
Both schools on shelter-in-place continued their normal schedules and classwork, but some students did suffer anxiety, Horsley said.
“We worked with those students, and got them back to class as soon as possible,” he said. “Anxiety is pretty normal, especially with what happened in Florida,” referring to the Feb. 14 mass shooting that killed 17 people. A former student has been charged.
Horsley said counselors will remain available to students throughout the day.
A number of student-aged youths were just off campus, watching police. Horsley, who was not yet at the scene, said it was likely they were Granger High students who left school without permission.
Granger High School is at 3580 S. 3600 West, West Valley City. West Lake Junior High is at 3400 South and 3450 West.
Students were told it was a lock down. So was it or not?