On Sept. 21, Denver Police received a call about an active shooter from East High School. Students and staff went on an immediate lockdown, and were later escorted out of the building. 

“I was in my sixth-period class and all of a sudden there was an announcement saying that the school was going on lockdown and to find a place to hide, but it was much faster than normal,” East High School junior Sophie Deblasio said. “We all went into this closet in our classroom and were just kind of waiting around, everybody thought it was a drill, and then all of a sudden a girl pulls up her Snapchat, and its 300 cops running [into the school] and everybody [realized]: ‘Wow, this is not a drill.’” 

As many students hid in their classrooms, SWAT teams lined the hallways until students were able to be escorted outside by police. 

“[SWAT officers] busted down [the] door and then walked us to the football field with guns in our faces and made us keep our hands up,” East High School senior Jade Sell said. “We got evacuated out of the building in about thirty minutes but we were outside [on the football field] for two hours.”

Students waited on the football field for police to clear the campus with the weather in the high 80s and low 90s. According to Sell, many students were overheating and even fainting. 

 “We were locked in the football field for about two hours in 90-degree heat, with no water or shade,” Deblasio said. “At some point, firefighters were there and they were spraying us with their hose.”

While East students waited on the field and many called their parents, similar threats were placed at Alamosa and Montrose High Schools. According to the Denver Police Department, all threats were unfounded but because of the numerous threats across the state, the FBI is now involved. 

“And it’s just a matter of time before one of these threats happens and someone is going to get hurt and I think about it 24/7,” Sell said. “It’s terrifying, truly.”