Eastpointe High School students being released after threat prompted lockdown

Eastpointe — Eastpointe High School was placed on lockdown early Wednesday afternoon after a threat was made on social media, but students began leaving the building at 2:16 p.m.

Students are being released in groups of seven or eight, and they are going to a line of school buses on Couzens Street. A Warren police officer armed with a rifle told parents not to run toward their kids if they come out, but to stay behind the staging area.

"Local and regional police departments are currently at the school and have decided to go classroom to classroom to search all students and classrooms," Eastpointe Community Schools said in an earlier statement. "Students are currently safely locked down in the building. There is no threat to any other district schools."

The incident started just after 12 p.m. Wednesday. By 1:15 p.m., roughly a dozen police officers from at least three agencies surrounded the school at 15501 Couzens Avenue. At one point, two police officers were posted at one of the school's entrances with their weapons drawn. A Medstar ambulance was at the ready down the street.

The Eastpointe Police Department declined to provide details. Officers from Eastpointe, Warren and St. Clair Shores are on scene. Eastpointe Community Schools has approximately 2,300 students and the high school about 750 students.

"We are asking parents not to come to the building at this time to allow authorities an opportunity to complete their search," the district said in a statement. "We will continue to keep families updated this afternoon."

Parents, teachers and school personnel lined Couzens Street as police patrolled, sharing conflicting information about what led to the lockdown.

"Apparently there was an altercation at lunch and one of the students pulled out a gun," said Milo Naylon, a volunteer with the school's summer program.

Some families said they weren't happy about the way the incident was being handled.

Skylar Walker, 26, said his sister is in 11th grade at the high school.

"I'm just worried about my sister," Walker said. "This is getting out of hand. This is an ongoing thing. We keep coming up here for problems."

Walker's mother, Jerrica Matthews, expressed frustration that she didn't know more about the incident.

"Nobody from the school called us about this. We had to hear it from my daughter," Matthews said.

Michigan schools have been plagued by threats in the wake of the November 2021 Oxford High School, forcing periodic closures of schools as police investigate what turn out to be false reports.

Two months ago in April, Forest Park Elementary School in Eastpointe closed because of "multiple threatening phone calls" in the morning, according to the school district. The building was placed on lockdown, police were called in to secure the building and students were sent home for the day.

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