Hillsborough County, Florida What started as a typical school day at Newsom High School on the morning of (date) quickly spiraled out of control, leaving staff, parents and students anxious. The entire campus was placed on lockdown at 8:47 a.m. after the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) received an anonymous threat directed at the high school. The nature of the threat has not been made public, but it was deemed significant enough to request the activation of the HCSO's School Threat Assessment Team (START).
The rapid implementation of the lockdown caused a significant change in the environment at Newsom High when word came out. Suddenly students who were in the middle of their morning classes were told to stay put. There was a sense of uneasiness in the air, so the teachers tried to keep their children calm while locking the doors and turning off the lights. For several hours afterward, Newsom High School was a picture of quiet tension mixed with palpable tension as parents and students awaited word from law enforcement while students waited in their classrooms.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office responded immediately. Within minutes of learning of the threat, deputies were dispatched to the scene. The presence of school resource officers on campus at the time was essential in maintaining order and ensuring adherence to lockdown protocols. To make sure everyone inside the building was safe, a thorough room-by-room search of the campus was conducted by the START team, a special force trained to deal with potential threats to the school.
HCSO officials stressed that the safety and well-being of staff and children was their top priority throughout the episode. Students and teachers began to understand the gravity of the situation when the clock passed 9:00 am; Several family members texted to assure them they were safe but were unaware of what was happening. “At first we weren't sure what was going on,” stated (student's name), a sophomore at Newsome High School. “All we knew was that our classrooms had to remain silent because of the impending threat. It was very terrible.
