Gun Scare Prompts Lockdown at Redwood High School in Larkspur

The Central Marin Police Authority and Redwood High School officials locked down the campus earlier Wednesday, after a student thought they noticed another with a gun.

According to Lt. Sean Smith, a lockdown was called for around 12:44 p.m.

“We received a call from the high school administrator regarding a student who had come to him and heard... what he thought was a weapon being cycled,” Smith told Patch by telephone.

That student— who apparently is familiar with the noise that a gun being cycled makes— was in the bathroom and heard the noises in the stall next to him, Smith said.

Shortly after that, the student saw a metal object fall to the ground, which he thought was a bullet.

“Once the subject n the next stall left, he waited a little bit and went to a school official... they called us... we put the school on lockdown,” Smith said.

Through surveillance images, authorities were able to track down the student who was in the bathroom and located him in a classroom. They pulled the student out for questioning, and found out the whole thing was a misunderstanding, Smith said.

“We determined that it was not a weapon, it was a medical device... that makes a similar noise,” he said.

The student did also drop a metal object, believed to be a key, according to the lieutenant.

Though it was not an actual weapon that prompted the alert, Lt. Smith says everyone involved reacted as they should have.

“The student that reported did the right thing,” he said. “The school did the right thing.”

The school was given the all-clear at 2:03 p.m., and the lockdown was lifted within two minutes, according to Smith.