The school asked parents not to come to school or phone the school during the incident. Photo / George Heard
The school asked parents not to come to school or phone the school during the incident. Photo / George Heard
Two Christchurch high schools both went into lockdown at lunchtime today after a man “behaving oddly” walked on to school grounds without permission.
In separate statements to their school communities, Avonside Girls’ and Shirley Boys’ High Schools both confirmed their students were put into lockdown just after midday.
They asked parents not to come to school or phone the school during the incident.
“Please do not come to the school or phone the school as you will not be attended to and this may cause disruption to the management of this incident and could potentially place yourselves and/or our staff and student’s safety at risk,” a statement from Avonside Girls’ read.
“All further updates will be provided on the school website.”
Pareawa Banks Avenue School principal Toni Burnside told NZME she was in a professional development meeting with several local school representatives when principals from both AGHS and SBHS rushed out.
Talking to the Herald, Avonside’s principal confirmed a man had wandered on to the school’s grounds without permission and was behaving oddly.
“He just walked right past reception and on to the school, so we put the students into lockdown,” said principal Catherine Law.
The man, who was unarmed, was believed to not be known to the school, but inquiries are ongoing.
Students of both schools were evacuated onto the tennis courts as per their lockdown procedure.
Avonside Girls High School said on its Facebook page the lockdown was “not a practice”. Photo / NZME
Police shortly arrived, the man in question was taken away and inquiries are currently being made into the matter.
Whilst the nature of the incident has been resolved, Law said there was still a process for the school to carry out and would carry out checks with their students.
“We will take the students back into school for checks, some students will be fine and others will need a little more support,” she said.
Police are still at the school grounds.
“I’m very pleased with the school’s communication with the parents and students,” said Law.
In a statement to the media, police confirmed they responded to reports of a suspicious person who walked into a school at around 11.40am.
“The person was not armed and [nobody] was injured,” they said.
Students have made their way back into their classrooms, a “large number” of parents are waiting outside the school to pick their children up according to a photographer at the scene.
