UPDATE: Paul Breaux Middle School Lockdown Lifted After Morning Gun Scare
UPDATE: The Lafayette Police Department has provided the following update:
Lafayette, LA – The lockdown at Paul Breaux Middle School has been lifted around 12:45 p.m. today. The campus was searched and no weapon was found.
Investigators interviewed students regarding this situation. Through the investigation it was able to be determined, a juvenile student at Paul Breaux Middle School provided a Lafayette Police School Resource Officer with false information. The juvenile told officers that two students were seen on campus with guns. The information received from the student was false and created another crisis. This information is what prompted the lockdown and caused great alarm for the students and staff.
The juvenile student has been arrested for 1 count of Terrorizing, and placed into the Lafayette Juvenile Detention Home.
The Lafayette Police Department would like to emphasize that false information or false social media threats of violence will never be tolerated under any circumstances. These situations that have occurred this week in our school systems, are affecting everyone in the community and must stop. The Lafayette Police Department will continue to enforce all laws pertaining to these types of situations.
Thank you again to the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Lafayette Parish School System for working side-by-side with us to keep our schools safe.
The arrest makes for the third Lafayette Parish student arrested and charged with terrorizing this week. The other two stemmed from the Lafayette High lockdowns, with one student there arrested and charged with one count of terrorizing and another student arrested and charged with two counts of terrorizing.
Terrorizing is a charge that can lead to heavy fines and prison time.
UPDATE: According to KLFY, the lockdown at Paul Breaux Middle School was changed to a shelter in place around midday. It was lifted completely after the students went to lunch. The school is operating normally and dismissal will take place as usual at the end of the day.
Original story below.
Paul Breaux Middle School is on lockdown while law enforcement respond to a possible threat on campus.
Around 9:30 a.m., authorities were alerted to a report of a student possibly being on campus with a gun. Lafayette Police are on scene at this time and lockdown procedures are in place, according to LPD Sr. Cpl. Matthew Benoit.
"The school was immediately placed on lockdown," LPD said in a statement. "Law enforcement are on scene conducting lockdown protocol and searching the campus. Updates are being provided to parents by the Lafayette Parish School System."
The situation is currently developing.
This is the third lockdown of an LPSS school this week. On Monday and Thursday, Lafayette High School was placed under lockdown after violent threats against students and faculty were posted online.
Several area schools have been under threat this week.