A Thursday morning lockdown at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee occurred after an administrator mistook someone in the building as an armed intruder.
Gwinnett County police responded to the lockdown around 11 a.m. and determined the believed intruder was a contractor who was authorized to be in the building and was not armed, according to a letter sent to parents by Principal Lee Augmon.
She emphasized that students were not in danger and thanked students and staff for following safety procedures. Police said on social media that during their response, officers partially evacuated the building.
Gwinnett schools are all equipped with a new emergency alert system that equips all employees with a wearable button to call for help, report an emergency or trigger a lockdown. Centegix, the company that provides the crisis alert system, said lockdowns account for less than 2% of the system’s use nationwide.
The system is in several metro Atlanta districts.
Centegix came up at Thursday’s school board meeting, although not related to the situation at Collins Hill. Board Chair Tarece Johnson said she’d heard from teachers who asked about how the system worked. Al Taylor, the district’s chief of schools, said there has been training but will be more.
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