Lakeside Elementary locked down after pellet gun incident

Lakeside Elementary went into a soft lockdown Tuesday morning after a playground supervisor observed two people shooting what later turned out to be a pellet gun north of the school, according to Lakeside Elementary Principal John Thies.

A school crisis team made the decision to go on lockdown until law enforcement arrived to investigate, according to Thies, who said he was at Somers Middle School at the time of the incident.

Parents were alerted about the incident that afternoon through a prerecorded message from Somers-Lakeside School District Superintendent Joe Price that stated: “This morning we had an unanticipated test of our emergency plan. One of our playground supervisors at Lakeside observed some people with a gun near the food bank. The school was put into a lockdown and law enforcement was contacted immediately. As it turned out, the two young men were shooting at birds with a pellet gun and our students were not in danger. Students and staff followed our plan as practiced. We also learned some things from this which will help improve our emergency procedures for the future.”