This story, originally published at 12:14 p.m. May 16, was updated at 5 p.m. to include comments from FOX 5 news reporter Bob Barnard, whose son is a student at the high school.
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School was placed in lockdown Thursday following a threat that police later determined to be unfounded.
The threat was called into the school at approximately 11:23 a.m. A Community Engagement Officer, who is the county police officer assigned to the B-CC High School cluster, responded to the call and talked to the caller, according to police spokesman Shiera Goff. The officer was “concerned enough about the threat to have officers respond,” Goff said.
The school was locked down at 11:29 a.m., Goff said.
Police did not initially specify on social media what the threat was, but according to police radio transmissions at 11:23 a.m., the school administration received a threat that a suspect was in the building with an AR-15 rifle and pipe bombs.
Goff, who was at the school, said she could not confirm the nature of the threat. She did note that officials believed B-CC was the target of a so-called swatting call and that other schools outside the county had also received threats.
Many students were eating lunch as the situation unfolded. While police searched the school, students who had left for lunch were not allowed into the building. Dozens stood milling on sidewalks and at the school’s driveway entrance on East West Highway.
“We were away from school when it happened. Then we got the email,” saying the school was on lockdown and students outside the school should stay away, student Zamir Johnson of Silver Spring said.
Freshman Telman Dashdorj said he had heard from students sheltering inside that armed police officers had “barged” into classrooms to search.
At 1:12 p.m. police posted on X that K9 officers were clearing the school. Multiple police vehicles were at the school and officers were blocking traffic from passing in front of the building on East West Highway in Bethesda. At 1:21 p.m. students who left for lunch were let back into the school.
Once the school was cleared in the early afternoon, school officials announced that students would be dismissed at the normal time. Parents who wished to pick up their children were instructed where to go at the school, according to a message sent to the school community.
The incident comes days after a B-CC student allegedly brought a gun onto campus and then fled the building after being seen with it.
As the incident unfolded, some parents stood across from the school waiting for more information along with students and news media.
Among the parents outside the school was FOX 5 reporter Bob Barnard, whose son, 18-year-old Jimmy, attended B-CC. The veteran reporter had been assigned to cover the threat at the school, according to the TV station located in downtown Bethesda.
“I’ve covered this kind of stuff so you know, it doesn’t usually get to me, but yeah you know, you’ve got your son trapped inside a real situation. It’s a little different, but I’m also trying to do my job and stay calm and provide as much accurate information as we can,” Barnard told the station as part of his report.
Barnard spoke to his son by phone, who said he was in the gymnasium taking an Advanced Placement Spanish exam when “a bunch of people ran in and teachers told us to stop taking the test and sit along the wall.”
Barnard’s son said more than 100 students were in the gym at the time. Other students entered, saying school security guards and police officers had told them “to run as fast as they could.”
Jimmy said he heard from the other students that “cops with machine guns and you know, shields and stuff, were coming in with seemingly a very large response for what we thought was a bomb threat, which is obviously not great, but it happens decently often.”
Parent Regina Dull of Kensington, whose daughter attends B-CC, said she had received three alert messages about the incident from MCPS and the school. Considering Monday’s incident in which a student allegedly brought a weapon to school, she said she was “more anxious” than she had been in the past upon hearing about a threat to the school.
“It’s terrifying,” said Melissa Mello, whose daughter is a B-CC junior. The Chevy Chase resident said she lives nearby and came over to the school after hearing a large number of sirens from emergency responders.
She said her daughter had texted her that she was safe in a room with other students and three security guards during the lockdown.
“I heard the sirens way more than normal,” she said, adding that hearing sirens of vehicles responding to threats at the school have become “way too normal.”