‘Hide, stay low, be quiet;’ Concerned parents rush to Dayton high school after gun threat

DAYTON — A social post about a gun in a Dayton high school led to a police sweep of the building and one student placed into custody Monday morning.

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A student at David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center was taken out of the school in handcuffs after sharing on social media that he brought a firearm into the building, Dayton Public Schools Interim Superintendent David Lawrence wrote in a letter.

David H. Ponitz administrators notified Dayton police immediately and identified the student.

The school was placed on a shelter-in-place lockdown right before 9 a.m., and at this time, students started calling their families.

According to a Dayton police report, a student reported the social media post to the resource officer.

The report says the social media post included language about sneaking a gun into the school.

In the letter, Lawrence wrote, “After a thorough search, no weapon was found on the student or in his locker.”

David H. Ponitz freshman Ezzerae Simpkins said she didn’t witness a lot of panic, instead, everyone locked their classroom doors and stayed calm.

Dayton Public Schools parent Rachel Jefferson pulled three students out of school after they told her what was going on.

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“A kid came in with a gun, it wasn’t like an active shooter thing, but they were searching for him, and they had the K9, and so I just came and got them out,” Jefferson said.

Administrators decided to have police and K9s search the school as an extra precaution.

No weapons were located during this search.

The student told officers on scene that the picture posted was old and explained the language used was a lyric from a rap song he liked, according to the police report.

The shelter-in-place lockdown was lifted after police confirmed the building was safe.

Police released the student into the custody of his grandmother when the school was cleared, according to the police report.

The school day resumed as normal, but many parents came to pull their children out for the remainder of the day.

“Everybody was texting their parents asking if they could go home, and stuff like that but other than that it was not bad,” Simpkins said.

Destinie Anderson is also a DPS parent. She left work to pick up her daughter and niece after she received a phone call.

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“I got a call from my daughter, and she was just so scared, and I was at work, and she was like ‘Mommy, mommy, what do I do it’s an active shooter here,’ and I was like I’m about to come and get you, I said just hide, stay low and be quiet,” Anderson said.

Anderson is just happy that everyone is okay and nothing worse happened.

She said students must go through a metal detector every morning and their phones are taken away and locked up, so she was very confused about how a gun could have gotten into the building.

“(Guns are) created to destroy, and I don’t want them near my babies,” Anderson said.

The letter from Lawrence said the safety of all students and staff is the district’s greatest priority.

The district also plans to hold a Safety and Security meeting with high school parents for any questions they may have about the security measures in place at David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center.

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