Yesterday, Grandview went into a lockdown half way through the first period due to a malfunctioning security system.The incident kicked off at 9:14, and was quickly resolved within an hour, but not without several questions as to the cause of the lockdown. 

A staff meeting was held after school where Dr. Roberts and Cherry Creek Director of Security Ian Lopez addressed the main cause of the malfunction. 

“[We] were able to determine the most likely cause of this was from an aging security panel that the wall-com system is connected to,” Lopez said. “Some of the security panels that we have are twenty plus years old.”

The malfunction triggered a recording that was different from the typical lockdown procedure. 

“You heard the audible message play, you saw the message board flash, and then after that it stopped,” Lopez said. “During the lockdown drill, you will notice that [the] lockdown message scrolls the entire time we are in lockdown. This is how it is designed to happen.” 

Administration has begun to discuss solutions to address the malfunction.

“[We are currently discussing] an alternative pathway to reroute our potentially aging security panels that give direct feeds into the systems,” Roberts said.

Yet the change cannot be instantaneous due to the cost restraints.

“To totally gut the security system inside of each building inside of each building [will] take a lot of money and a lot of time,” Lopez said. “That is probably a bond issue that we need to address in 2024.” 

Even though there was no active threat, both staff and first responders still acted accordingly. 

“Your two SROs immediately started checking the building,” Lopez said. “So they were guns out, sweeping the building and making sure there were no threats in here.” 

While there were a few bumps in yesterday’s response, the security staff and administration vowed to work harder to prevent something similar from occuring in the future.

“I think probably what happened today was a couple things got a little disjointed, and we just happened to kind of miss a couple of things,” Lopez said. “That we need to grow from. We need to get better.”

The staff’s quick response through the RedBag system was also heavily praised.

“[Four minutes after the incident kicked off] 80% of the RedBags that were scanned checked in, and then the remaining percentage was under six minutes,” Lopez said.

The staff was able to quickly compose themselves and work to support their students and calm any rumors that might have been circulating online.

“[With social media],  we can’t control any of that,” Roberts said. “But what we can control is our own messaging, and I know [our staff] did that today. [They] were nothing but professional.” 

Roberts continued to praise the staff and their tireless efforts throughout the entire lockdown.

“[Our staff] are a direct line to students, and the number of phone calls and parents we heard from today was minimal, I think because of the care [our staff] took of their students,” Roberts said. “So thank you, thank you, thank you for that.”

On Wednesday workers began construction on the panel system to hopefully mediate the problem.