2 Miami-Dade Schools Placed On Lockdown Over Threats

MIAMI LAKES, FL — Two Miami-Dade public schools were placed on lockdown for a time on Thursday following what police described as an unfounded threat. Miami-Dade police said that an anonymous caller phoned in the threat pertaining to Barbara Goleman Senior High School and nearby Bob Graham Education Center. The threat proved false.

"That was an unfounded incident where we had an anonymous caller saying there was a man with a gun," Miami-Dade police detective Lee Cowart told Patch. "Everything went into the mode that we train over and over for. Those facilities were locked down."

Cowart said that police set up a perimeter around the two buildings which are only blocks away from one another. "At the end of the day it was unfounded," he said.

He added that the SWAT team was not called out.

"There wouldn't have been any reason to do that," Cowart said. "They (schools) were locked down. From my understanding of that scene, there was no indication that any person or persons of a suspicious nature were in those schools."

He added that the response would have been very different if police had discovered an armed gunman inside one of the buildings.

Photo by Paul Scicchitano