New Trier High School goes into ‘brief’ lockdown for student ’emergency’

New Trier High School’s Winnetka campus went into a “hold” Thursday morning, school officials said, in response to “an emergency” with a student.

The incident — in which students were restrained to classrooms and the school was secured — ended by 11 a.m. and was brief, Superintendent Dr. Paul Sally wrote to parents in an email obtained by The Record.

“It was clearly identified during the hold that at no time were any students or staff in danger,” Sally says in his message.

Winnetka Police declined to provide further information and pointed to a statement emailed to community members and posted to social media. It says the department “responded to an incident at New Trier High School: all parties involved are safe and accounted for, and there is no current threat to the community.”

Sally said in his message that the school is not providing any more information, citing privacy concerns; however, the district confirmed the incident did not involve a firearm.

NTHS Communications Director Niki Dizon said the school district has different protocols for different emergency situations. The school defines “hold,” “lockdown” and “secure” separately. In a “hold,” such as the one Thursday, students are kept in or moved to specific areas and away from hallways as school personnel respond to “a localized situation safely and confidentially.”

“Classes can continue instruction or activities during a hold,” she wrote in an email.

In a “lockdown,” she said, students are instructed to run and hide from a source of danger in the building, while a “secure” keeps students in and visitors out of school buildings because of a threat in the area but not at the school.

Stay tuned to The Record as this story develops.

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