Last Tuesday, a school in the Moran Independent School District went into lockdown over fireworks. The incident resulted in the arrest of one student’s parent.
During a press conference, Superintendent John Denson and Sheriff Edward Miller explained to local news outlets what happened the morning of February 14 that led to school officials taking such measures.
According to reporting by KXAN, between 8:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m., teachers noticed that a kindergartener allegedly had a “suspicious package.” After taking the package from the student, they reportedly found a large bundle of commercial fireworks inside.
While the investigation eventually determined that the fireworks posed no real threat unless they had gone off when someone was very close to them, as Sheriff Miller explained to KXAN, the discovery nonetheless triggered the school’s emergency lockdown procedure.
The authorities were called, and classrooms were evacuated one by one, with students moved to a nearby location.
The school had been completely evacuated by the time the bomb squad from Abilene, located about 45 minutes away, secured the package at approximately 11:40 a.m.
According to Denson and Miller, no other suspicious packages or items were found at the scene, and classes later resumed.
The child apparently brought the package into school as part of a Valentine’s Day project, KXAN reported. The children had been asked to make a box to collect Valentines from their classmates.
Tate Tabor, the father of the kindergartener who allegedly brought the package into the school, was booked into Shackelford County Jail on a prohibited weapon charge. The 23-year-old is held on a $7,500 bond, according to jail records. Additional charges are said to be pending, although the sheriff did not explain what they might be.
Superintendent Denson told KXAN that the silver lining of the whole incident was that it allowed the school district to practice its evacuation procedures in real time.
This was also the case for Carroll High School in Southlake, which had to evacuate its campus the day before, on February 13. The school received a bomb threat, and emergency measures were activated, as NBC DFW reported. Students and staff were able to return to classes by 9:30 a.m. after the authorities gave school officials the go-ahead.
