DANVERS — For 20 minutes Monday afternoon, students at St. John’s Prep believed they were the latest in a string of school shootings across the nation, when a report of an active shooter was called into Danvers police around 1:45 p.m. Monday.
The report turned out to be a hoax, another “swatting” incident, with first responders declaring the all-clear at 2:09 p.m. Monday. Nonetheless, the incident touched off a massive police response and plunged the school of 1,450 students into chaos as students and faculty alike sheltered in place in classrooms, or in other cases, fled the campus entirely. That chaos was only furthered when a Danvers police officer’s weapon discharged inside a bathroom in Benjamin Hall — the very place where the reported active shooter was supposedly located. No one was inside the bathroom when the gun went off and no one was injured.
That accidental discharge drew additional law enforcement to the scene, Danvers Police Chief James P. Lovell told reporters during a press briefing at the school, with several students inside the building calling 911 to report the shots.
“Typically we would have probably just kept our patrol force investigating initially, but when we had that report, we didn’t know where it happened at originally or how it occurred, so we had a larger response,” he said.
Lovell declined to elaborate when asked how the officer’s gun discharged or if they would face disciplinary action.
For many students, a routine day was thrust into complete disorder by the report.
Fenton Duffy, a freshman student from Salem, said that the students heard the principal on the school’s speaker.
“It sounded like she was crying, and they were like, ‘either run or hide,'” Duffy said.
Duffy said that he and other students ran from the school and hid in someone’s yard, adding he believed the man was a police officer because he had a shotgun, and that a state trooper and police officer were there.
Duffy said that they felt safe there, but that he was worried about the students still at St. John’s.
“I feel that this could possibly unite us and we’ll move forward,” he added.
Drew Bossi, a sophomore student, said he was sitting in class in the Brother Keefe academic building when he heard a sound come over the intercom indicating a report of an active shooter.
Bossi said he and a group of students immediately fled the building into the neighborhood near the school. The group made it to Seasons of Danvers, an assisted living facility nearly half a mile from the campus, where they were “taken in.”
Jack Quigley, a fellow sophomore, said he was in class watching a movie and didn’t hear the intercom but quickly heard the sound of feet rumbling as students and teachers alike fled the building. He said a “huge group of us” ran out towards the woods, where they waited for the OK to return to campus.
Reed Foricolla, a freshman student from Wakefield, said after hearing the intercom message he got under his desk. He hid there for a while before a police officer knocked on the door.
After the officer came a second time, his class evacuated to a field where there was a large tent.
Ira Pote, a freshman student from Wilmington, ran into the woods and went to someone’s house before returning to school.
“It was kind of scary at first,” Pote said.
Parents, who received word from the school about the incident at 2:01 p.m. Monday, were left scrambling trying to reach their children as the police response played out. Several parents could be seen running towards the school Monday afternoon.
“It’s a very scary feeling, glad that there was really no active shooting and nobody got hurt,” said Paula Cushing-Pote. “It’s nerve-wracking. I’m still in shock to be honest with you.”
Cushing-Pote said the school was very communicative and was sending numerous alerts to parents.
“I feel that the Prep did a phenomenal job,” she said.
Head of School Edward P. Hardiman said the school’s students, faculty, and staff “did exactly what they were supposed to do” once the false report came in.
“This is everybody’s nightmare,” Hardiman told reporters at the scene. “Our community as a Catholic school relies on coming together as community and supporting each other. My message to our students… was some of us are going to be OK, some of us are going to be really traumatized by what’s happened, and it’s our responsibility to reach out to each other, to support each other, and to care for each other.”
School counselors will be available to offer support to students, faculty, and staff in the aftermath of the incident, he said.
“Our primary goal, as was the Danvers police, was just to make sure that everybody was safe, no one was hurt, and now we reflect on what’s happened, take what we’ve learned, and prepare for the future,” Hardiman said. “Ideally, this doesn’t happen again.”
Hardiman did not confirm whether school will proceed as scheduled Tuesday, saying only that next steps would be determined over the next few hours and days.
Neither Hardiman nor Lovell commented on the origins of the swatting call, saying only it was a “fluid situation” as police investigated what actually happened Monday afternoon. But, Lovell said, the State Police Fusion Center was aiding Danvers police in tracing the call.
Lovell said the school’s sheer size — with 14 buildings spread across 175 acres — necessitated the larger response, with dozens of police cruisers lining the streets of the school’s campus, including those from Lynn, Nahant, Marblehead, and Peabody, and several helicopters circling the campus. Several officers were seen wearing tactical gear and carrying rifles. Numerous police chiefs responded to the scene to aid Danvers police, Lovell said.
“It definitely necessitated a larger response as we cleared each building. But again, using [the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council] and state police we were able to get large groups together and actually send them to different buildings on campus to address those areas. And then a secondary search was done after everything was secure,” he said.
Hardiman added the school was “extraordinarily grateful” to Danvers police and other law enforcement agencies that responded to the scene.
“The response that they brought, brought a great deal of comfort to a number of members of our community in the midst of all of this,” he said.
