Police officers from several agencies are at Wawasee High School following a telephone call, threatening in nature, caused a lock down. (Photo by Deb Patterson)

Wawasee High School located at 1 Warrior Path, Syracuse, was placed under lock down this morning after high school officials received a threatening phone call at 8:51 a.m.

“We were alerted at 8:51 a.m. of an outside threat phoned in to the school. At that point in time we went on a lockdown and implemented our procedures to ensure that students are safe,” explains Wawasee High School Principal Mike Schmidt in an email sent to parents.

“After consulting with state, county and local police departments for the last four hours, we are going to start releasing students to parents starting at 1 pm who want to pick them up from school. As an educator I would prefer that students remain in school for the remainder of the day to focus on their academics. All after school activities will continue as scheduled,” concluded Schmidt.

Wawasee Community School Corporation Superintendent Dr. Tom Edington noted that though the school was closely monitored and there was a constant presence of authorities at the school today, students were able to continue class rotations and attend a normal lunch. Edington noted that close attention was paid to ensuring all doors were locked and stayed shut and locked after hearing there had been a robbery in North Webster.

Edington noted that the threat is still under police investigation but noted that the school will continue with a normal, supervised dismissal with all after school activities continuing as scheduled at this time. Though parents were able to collect their children at 1 p.m. should they feel the need, Edington noted very few families opted to do so.

“Police are still watchful and we still have a police presence this afternoon,” noted Edington. “We may have had a half dozen parents come pick up kids but certainly I was in the building and never felt safer. There was a lot of police presence today and we thank them for their efforts.”

Indiana State Police, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and Syracuse Police responded to the threat at the school this morning.