Firecrackers at Woodson Prompt Lockdown

A startling thing happened at Woodson yesterday. Student(s) set off approximately six firecrackers in the stairwell by Student Services. Not knowing what the sound was, many students believed they heard gun shots.
 
My personal account was that I was sitting alone in the Publications Lab. I was staying after school to work on the layout of the Word to Woodson section and the other editors had not arrived yet. A rush of students went running down the hall, which I disregarded as rude and continued to log into my email. I glanced over to the office where I could see the yearbook teacher sitting and saw that she had also looked into the hallway. I figured she was going to go out and yell at them (I would later find out that she said she figured they would be gone by the time she went into the hallway).
 
What happened next I was not prepared for. A male voice, a teacher, yelled, "Everyone get in a room now!" I wasn't sure if he was just yelling at kids who were hanging in a hallway or something else. The tone of his voice was serious, so something prompted me to get up and poke my head out the door frame. Before I could even look into the hallway, a student came up to me and said, "We heard gun shots and we are supposed to get in a room."
 
It might sound cliche, but images of Columbine and Virginia Tech shot through my head. Would we become a school with a crazy gunman on the loose? I ran to the yearbook advisor, quickly told her they heard gun shots and we went into lock down mode.
 
I sent my mom and dad a text at 2:15 pm that read, "I just want to let you know I'm OK but i think we are having a lock down that's real I think." We turned off the lights in the classroom, locked the door and hid in the backroom. I couldn't believe this was actually happening.
 
The yearbook advisor took out her cell phone and called the main office. She asked them what was happening, and in a chipper voice told us that it was 'just firecrakers' and we were fine to return to our activities. An instantaneous breath of relief was released, I didn't even realize I was holding my breath.
 
I shot my parents another text at 2:18 pm saying, "We are fine, it was fireworks and we are ok," note my redundancy to repeat phrases - I was still on an adrenaline rush. The scariest part of yesterday was that the whole course of events happened in 3 minutes. We knew exactly how to do the lock down procedures. The room I was in is only a few yards away from the stairwell where the firecrackers were shot and I did not hear it at all. No doubt that students on the other side of the school would not have heard it and had it been a gun man, how would they know to lock down?
 
An announcement came on about 10 minutes after the ordeal telling faculty and students that it was firecrakers in the stairwell. What the administration really needed to do was get the faculty the memo that we needed to lock down, a message that needed to be sent immediately.
 
An email sent by Principal Jeff Yost came at 2:29 pm explaning the events and asking for the student responsible to come forward and students who know or saw something to help the administration. Principal Yosts asks, "If you hear of any information that would be of assistance to us in resolving the matter, please call the school at 703-503-4600.  Ask your son or daughter if they might also be able to assist."