Dozens of Clovis West High students miss school after back-to-back campus lockdowns
After back-to-back lockdowns at Clovis West High School due to what turned out to be bogus threats, dozens of students just stayed home Tuesday even as campuses tried to return to normal.
According to district spokesperson Kelly Avants, attendance was down roughly 12% on both campuses Tuesday and 1-2% for the district as a whole.
Specifically, about 79% of students showed up for classes at Clovis West, a campus of just over 2,000 students as of 2021-22 enrollment data, and 83.3% were present today at Fort Washington, a school of just under 600, compared with 93.2% attendance at Clovis Unified schools today districtwide.
While some questioned whether Clovis West would cancel classes in the wake of the false threats, Principal Eric Swain shared in a message to families that school would remain open as usual.
“Our campus is safe,” he said. “We will continue to educate our students who are at school, and provide opportunities when students return from an absence. We cannot empower people like this, nor let them undermine the emotional well-being of our students and our team.”
Swain also said the school is prepared to support anyone “struggling with the events of the past two school days.”
The first lockdown happened Friday around 2:15 p.m. after Fresno police received a call from someone who stated they were en route to Clovis West to shoot up the campus.
Fresno police swept the campus and determined the threat was unsubstantiated while the school pivoted to its end-of-day release procedures.
In what seemed like déjà vu three days later, another lockdown was called Monday morning after Fresno police received a similar call around 9:30 a.m. from someone who claimed they were on their way to the high school to shoot students.
Officers cleared the school again, and Clovis West and Fort Washington resumed normal operations by 10:34 a.m.
Clovis Unified has detailed information online for families on what to do in case of a lockdown or other campus safety emergency.
The district recommends parents and guardians don’t flock to campus in the event of an emergency but instead “wait for additional instructions and only head to school during a lockdown or shelter in place if instructed to do so.”
In Selma Unified, schools were recently forced to revisit their own safety procedures after the fatal shooting of Selma police officer Gonzalo Carrasco, Jr., and the subsequent manhunt sent the school into lockdown for hours. Selma’s superintendent told the Ed Lab that hundreds of parents stood outside the school, complicating the lockdown procedure.
