No threat determined after shelter-in-place at Princeton High School

On Friday, Dec. 6, police received an unconfirmed threat to Princeton High School (PHS) at around 11 a.m. that caused a ‘shelter-in-place’ procedure to be put into effect for all schools in the district for the remainder of the day.

Shelter-in-place is a security measure employed in certain threats during which people are not allowed to leave a determined place, such as a classroom. No one was hurt or injured, and police later determined that there was “no current threat,” according to reporting from Patch.com.

PHS received a threat via phone at approximately 11 a.m., according to reporting from The Hill. The Princeton Police Department remained at the school for the rest of the day, and students were released at 3 p.m.

After-school and evening activities at the high school went on as scheduled.

In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, the PHS chapter of March For Our Lives wrote that their meeting was “ironically” cut short when the school went into the shelter-in-place procedure. March For Our Lives is a national student organization that advocates for more stringent gun control, founded after the mass shooting at Parkland High School in February 2018.

“Thankfully, the police determined that there was no imminent danger to PHS. However, the fact that this threat could easily have been real speaks to the magnitude of the problem of gun violence in our nation,” the statement noted before spelling out several “common-sense gun laws” the group believes should be enacted at both the state and federal level.

March For Our Lives’ statement explained that the incident prevented many students from attending the climate strike at Hinds Plaza, originally scheduled for 12:30 p.m., which was initially delayed but eventually went ahead.

“It is upsetting that this threat ended up limiting participation in the climate strike, which is a wonderful example of the power of student activism,” wrote the organizers.