I don’t have a first block on red days, so I go to school at 9:35. On this day, I decided to wake up early and spend some time in the morning with my boyfriend. We went to breakfast, just hung out at our friend’s house until it was time for school. This day started off pretty routine. I rode back to school with my boyfriend, and that’s when things started to get a little weird. As we were driving up the road to Central we saw a cop car with its lights on…. I teased my boyfriend that “Oooo babe the cops are after you,” and we laughed about it because we didn’t think that anything serious was happening. The cop pulled into the parking lot at school, and we both thought it was weird. The thing that we both thought was more weird was then the cop blocked the entrance to the parking lot. He was getting his books out of the back of the car, and I was looking at the front of the school. There were cops all over the place, security guards at every entrance and administrators all over. I asked him what we should do and he replied, “Let’s go see what all this is about, there is something up and it’s serious.”

At this point we were about 15 minutes late for our second block because we were contemplating weather to sit in the car or to go in. Finally we decided to go to the front. About 35 feet from the door we heard the officers yelling “ Hurry! Run! This isn’t fake! You need to hurry and get in here for your safety!” We ran and ran, we got to the door and basically dove in. We got put in the ROTC room and couldn’t see a thing. At this point we had no clue what was going on… all we knew was to sit down shut up and we would hear more when the time was right. Then I heard the voice of Mr. Jones come on the intercom, saying what was going on. The terror that I felt, when I heard the words “…someone in the school with a gun…..”, could not be told with words.

The only thing I could think of was that I need to tell my mom and dad that I love them. I texted my dad and told him what was going on and what I knew, and told him to call mom and tell her what had been going on. I ended my text with “I love you’s” and that was it. He sent me back a single text that said “ Ook Sam, I love you……see you soon.”

- Sammi

Hear Sammi read it: Sammi’s Story

I was just sitting down in the photography room before class when the announcement came on to go into lockdown. We moved over to the corner of the room and shut off all the lights. For the first 5-10 minutes we were pretty quiet but then there was nothing really going on so we started talking and moving around and then Mr. Jones came on the intercom saying that the teachers were going to receive an email in about 2 minutes. Our teacher never told us what the email said but he made us be quiet again and said that we needed to take this more seriously, that’s when I knew it wasn’t just a drill.

A little bit later Mr. Jones came back on the intercom and was telling us what was going on. About a minute after that is when everybody started getting text messages and phone calls from their parents and friends. At first we were trying to hide our phones but then after awhile we just didn’t care anymore, our teacher said we were going to tie up the phones lines with all the texting going on. I got a text message from my mom saying, “Hey I heard there are a bunch of cops at your school. Anything going on?” I told her that there was a guy that came into the school with a handgun and that the place was surrounded with cops. She wanted to make sure everyone was ok and to keep her informed. Then my dad called me and asked what was going on and if I was alright and to keep him updated. Then I started get text messages from friends from Douglas and Stevens and old friends that I don’t even talk to anymore asking what was going on.

Pretty soon, we started hearing a lot of rumors, like they found a gun on the 2^nd floor, Mr. Vernon got shot, and that there was a shot fired and Grandview Elementary. After sitting there for about an hour and a half we were starting to get bored so we laid down on the floor to get more comfortable and were listening to music and the news and watching movies on peoples iPods. Then at about a quarter to 11 Mr. Jones came back on the intercom and told us that the building was safe and we were going to start evacuating over to the civic center at 11 o’clock.

At 11:17 we heard the bell ring for 2^nd block to be over and about 10 minutes after that we saw the yearbook room light turn on. We were just sitting there watching the window waiting for them to come get us and all of a sudden you could see a guy pointing his gun in the room and shining his flashlight on everybody. That’s when I got scared and knew that it wasn’t just a joke. Then they walked and Mr. Murphy said “Its Mr. Murphy please let me in.” So we all started getting up and the guy in the S.W.A.T. uniform told us to stay there and he started talking about how we were going to line up single file with our hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and we were going to walk out to the hallway and wait till we were all ready to head over to the civic center.

We had to make sure we were quiet in the halls and when we got outside everybody was loud talking about everything and looking at all the cop cars and seeing all the parents across the street. When we got into the civic center we went in sat in the stands and I kept getting calls from my parents and my sister and I was texting everyone but we didn’t get a lot of good service cause everyone was on their phones. At about 1:20 Mr. Jones came in and told us they found out it was fake. Everybody in the arena started yelling and getting mad but he said the good news was that we got to go home; everybody started cheering but then he said there was bad news: we might have to make up that day and that’s when everybody started getting mad again. He said they would be going back to unlock the school so students get their keys or whatever they needed. He finally let us out of there and our section was the first one out so we were out of there by 1:30.

- Stacy

There was me and a couple friends who had second hour off so we were sitting just hanging out when one of my friends said we had a lockdown; we all thought it was a drill because of the Virginia Tech incident but then we heard Norma the security guard say it wasn’t a drill. So we figured that they were bringing in the drug dogs but then all the security guards and a couple administrators were practically yelling “This is not a drill!” So we were basically pushed up the stairs into the library and we were told to sit down, stay down, and stay quiet.

About a minute after Mr. Jones said what was happening my phone started going off like crazy; I got texts from all my friends, calls from my family and friends, everything! But we weren’t supposed to use our phones, 10 people got theirs taken away. We had to stay quiet so my friends and I started painting each other’s nails…even the guys! And then we tried to read seeing how we were in the library but we were in the non-fiction section so there wasn’t much that we wanted to read.

We weren’t told much in the library or I at least couldn’t really hear it…some people were a little worried and others weren’t taking it very seriously…some made me really mad because if there had been a gun in the school we could’ve been in a lot of danger; a lot of people just would not shut their mouths.

There were a lot of rumors going around. When Mr. Jones first came over the intercom someone said that he sounded like he had a gun to his head, most of the rumors obviously were just people’s imaginations gone wild in a state of terror.

So most of the time was just sitting and waiting, sitting and waiting, and then they told us we were going to evacuate but we still had to sit and wait because they said we were the biggest group so they were going to take us last. Then a couple SWAT Team members and police officers came up to the library and then we just stood and waited. We finally started to leave the library and that’s when it hit most of us that we were in danger. Some still didn’t get it but for a lot of us when we saw the police and the SWAT Team we were worried; maybe not for ourselves but for someone, a little brother or sister, a friend, or a boyfriend or girlfriend.

We walked over to the Civic Center with one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us. Then my friend called me and I was talking to her because she wasn’t there but she wanted to know if everyone was alright and what was going on. She had heard that whoever supposedly had a gun went into Central and when he was spotted he ran out and went to Stevens but he couldn’t get onto campus because there were already police officers there so he went to Western Dakota Tech and was supposedly arrested there. A few minutes afterwards we were told that the whole thing wasn’t even real. The entire auditorium went into an uproar. I heard almost everyone around me say “You’ve got to be kidding!” I want to know how someone could do that. Even if I could start something like that I would not be able to keep it going for almost four hours.

- Christine

I just got in to my Spanish class. I was just in the hall walking from the Math Department going to the foreign language. I just sat in my desk and I was talking to my friends and joking around when the announcement came on. I at first thought that we just need to go and lock the door and keep going like normal. But then my teacher said that we need to shut the door and lock it and turn off the lights. I could tell that she didn’t know about it.

I then I knew that it wasn’t a drill. I didn’t even panic. We shut off the lights but it was too dark to see so we turned on a computer so we had some light to see what we are doing. I just sat in the dark and quiet room. Then after about fifteen minutes I saw some kids with their cell phones out. The first thing I did is text my friend at Stevens. I told him that we have a gunman in the school and we are under a lockdown. He didn’t believe me right away. Then he heard it on the radio. My parents were trying to call me, and I answered them with a text saying that I am ok and I am in my Spanish class. Then I texted my friends that used to go to this school that now live out of state to tell them what is going on. I was texting for about an hour.

Then my friends in class just started to talk about other things in whispers. We talked about how we hoped that we’d get out the same time because we both didn’t have a third block. Then when Mr. Jones said that the guy isn’t in the building we turned the TV on and we were watching the news. It was weird seeing the students go out with their hands on the shoulders single file. It reminded me of Columbine High School but at Central. Then when I saw the police hiding behind trees in the back by the football field that was scary knowing that I am in that building.

They showed some snipers on the hill in the back of the school. Then a little after three hours of sitting in the room Mr. Jones made the announcement that they were in the English department and then they have the Science and then the Foreign language. Then he made another announcement that they were just finishing the Science department.

Then Mr. Murphy knocked on the door and we opened it up. I didn’t think Rapid had a SWAT Team. But we do and they were there with their big machine guns drawn. That is when I started to get nervous. It became real for me then . Then we had to put our hand on the shoulders of the person in front of us and we walked to the Civic Center. When we got here we were there for like 20 min and then we were free to go.

- Matt

Well since I was in my Spanish Class we were one of the last ones to evacuate the building. There were two girls that had to go to the restroom. My teacher was signing their pass when they made the announcement that we were going into a lockdown. So we waited and waited and it came to the point that the two girls had to go too bad. My Spanish class has some blankets in it, so they put those up and they went to the bathroom in the trash can. That was after waiting three hours.

- Matt

Text message that I had gotten from Amanda at 10:47am 4/17/07. She was in a random classroom they pulled her into and I was in photography.

There was a guy with a handgun that came to our school got spotted and left now the swat team is checkin

- Jenny

Well, hmmm… It all started at about 9:35am during the passing period from 1^st to 2^nd block. I had forestry class and just as I was walking in the room I heard a kid talking about the whole Virginia Tech thing and that it is probably going to happen to our school. Just a little while after the bell had rung; Mr. Jones our principle came over the intercom and told us to go in to lock down status. No one took it serious: “Ohh they are just practicing this now because of what happened yesterday, how stupid”.

We happened to have a sub that day and we all went over into the computer lab, then the teachers had to check their e-mail, that’s when we started being quiet and wondering what was going on. What was going on??? That was the worst feeling, we had no idea what was going on. Then one administrator came over the intercom and said that someone had spotted a man with a hand gun in the school and to stay in lockdown.

That’s when some of my class mates freaked. ”Ohh my God, I don’t want to die” and other stuff. The teacher told us to come and sit in her office (hint: Her office was only 8ft by 10ft) and there were about 25 of us. By that time everyone had pulled out their cell phones and was calling their parents.

Then they said that they are evacuating the building and taking everyone to the Civic Center. I was like “What?” I did not want to go anywhere; I just wanted to stay where I was at. There was so many rumors by then, what he looked like, that there was more that one, that there were gun shots, and that he is still in the building, and way more, none of them were good.

We were at the opposite end if the school that they were starting to evacuate so we had to wait for probably 2 hours. During this time there was lots of commotion and scary conversations. I was scared. The sub kept getting up and looking around and we are like jezz just sit down even the other teacher had to tell her to get down and that this is very serious.

Also one kid, that poor kid, had to go pee really, really bad. He was going to pee his pants so he had to go in the corner and pee in a bottle. Eww – but I guess if you have to go you have to go.

Then came the scariest part for me, It was when the SWAT team came into our room. We were already pretty shook up by then, then we hear banging on the door and then it opened. There were 3 guys all dressed out; they had helmets, bullet vest, boots, and a big machine gun with a flashlight on the end of it. All of the classes met in the hall and were ordered to go one by one down the big hall with your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you. No one was smiling everyone was serious. You wouldn’t think that all the kids would be so cooperative and so quiet, but when it comes down to it they will. We were walking fast but it seemed like it took forever, and the whole time I was thinking, “Why are they taking us out side?” I really didn’t understand he could be out there. We walked by rows and rows of cops, all of them we decked out.

We make it over to the civic center, and find out that it was a big fake, yeah a phony. Everyone had mixed thoughts and emotions: some mad, some sad, some happy, just all kinds. I was mad how could some stupid kid do this, there could have been way more important thing that those cops could have been doing, but no. We walked out of the Civic Center and there were tons of parents, it was kind of nice to know that they really cared. I went and saw my mom and talked with her, then I went home and talked with my dad and family. In the end I think it was kind of good for the community, I think it brought us together, and now we know that the schools are protected pretty well and the cops will be there in a snap.

- Presli

Well the day started out pretty smoothly for it only being Tuesday. My first block class went by really fast and I was sort of excited to go to my second block class because we get to cook and eat food in that class. However, immediately when I walked in the door and sat down my teacher ran to the door and locked it. She was reading the emergency packet and realized that we were supposed to be quiet with all the lights off and then she even made us sit on the floor away from the door. She wouldn’t even let us talk to each other.

As the day went on, I kept in touch with my mom through text message and she told me that she was locked in Albertson’s and they wouldn’t let her leave. She told me that there were a lot of police officers outside the school and that she had no way to get to me so she would keep in touch when she found something out. When Mr. Jones came on the intercom and told us exactly what was going on, I have to admit it was pretty scary. I didn’t know what to think or what to do and it didn’t really help that my teacher was really freaking out.

When we finally got evacuated to the Civic Center Arena, by men in SWAT uniforms, I was happy because that meant we would get to go home for the rest of the day. After like 3 hours, they finally let us go. When I got outside the Civic Center, they were a lot of very emotional parent and a lot of new broadcasters with cameras. I thought that the SWAT people and the news were a little dramatic but I guess it was a good thing and they were only there for our safety.

- Heidi

My day began fairly well. I had Espanol Uno with a crowd of annoying freshman and I was clearly anticipating the first block bell to ring so I could make my way down the hall to the math department. I had been holding my pee for the past 15 minutes, so I dropped my things off at my desk and sprinted toward the bathroom. Four feet away from a toilet, I heard the announcement to “go into Lockdown.” I immediately thought “just pee first.” I was interrupted by teachers yelling at me to go to class. When I arrived to my room I was the only one freaking out, I figured it must have been real since they never make lockdowns during passing time.

After an hour Mr. Jones popped on the intercom telling teachers to check their emails. My teacher didn’t make any expressions while he was reading it, which in one way made me feel better and in other way scared me because I felt as if he was hiding his emotions. By this time I had missed around 15 calls from my mom who works at Stevens and knew more than I did about everything happening. She sent me 5 texts, all to which I had to sneak my phone around to reply to. I felt we should be able to use our cell phones at a time like this, but our teacher wouldn’t allow us to. I also missed around 20 calls from four unknown numbers (I found out later it was my sister calling from her friends cell phones because hers was in her locker.)

Ten minutes after the email was sent Mr. Jones came on told us “this is not a drill.” He explained there was a “man spotted in the building with a handgun” and that cops had surrounded the building and “he” was “believed to be in the parking lot.”

Hours pass by and I’m still sitting there getting ready to puke because I can’t text anyone back and I’m worrying people a lot. I was also ready to PEE MY PANTS. Luckily we had a closet in our classroom that a kid went into and peed in a Gatorade bottle. I would rather hold mine than do that though.

At 11:00 Mr. Jones came on and announced that they were evacuating the building and we were being taken to the civic center, which confused me because they thought “he” was in the parking lot, so why would they even want us to leave the school? An hour and a half later we hear a knock at the door; we all file out in a single line grabbing the persons’ shoulder in front of us with ONE hand, not TWO (they made this very specific). After we got to the math department doors the guys with guns started shortening the lines, of course they pick ME to be the guinea pig of this. “Hey! Girl in the green sweater!” I didn’t look around AND I didn’t realize I was wearing a green sweater. He pointed at me several times until he said “Green sweater, white shirt.” I look down, for some reason, and it was exactly what I was wearing. He gave me very vague directions to “move to the front of the line.” I started a new line and that’s exactly what he wanted. I then had to lead the line, which scared the crap out of me because they didn’t tell me exactly what to do and yelled at me a lot, which I understood– they were just as stressed as we were.

We file passed empty classrooms out into the parking lot and over toward the civic center where parents were waiting and waving like it was some kind of airport. Cameras and news men and women were there shooting every second of it. Almost an hour later all 2300 (or so) kids are filed into the arena and everyone is “safe.” After 45 minutes or so of being crammed into all the seats one of my friends got a phone call from her mom saying it was all fake. I didn’t really believe it because it was SO real feeling. About 5 minutes after the phone call from her mom Mr. Jones comes on and announces that it was all false. I was ready to punch someone in the face. This kid wasted about 8000 people’s day. He wasted every person enrolled in a Rapid City School, every policeman there, every firefighter, ambulance driver, every parent, every newscaster, pretty much the whole city’s day.

- Danielle

What a sweet time, at first. I thought it was just another drill but then again it was kind of weird that they called it before the bell rang. At first I was happy because I didn’t know what was going on; I just thought I was wasting time for my class. Then they announced what was going on, by the sounds of it Jones was about to have a heart attack. They said a kid had seen someone with a gun but no confirmed shots so I still felt pretty safe.

Then we got to about eleven o clock and we were still in the room by this time everyone was using their cell phones, I was texting and calling about the whole world – I was quite bored. About 11:30 I was really bored and hungry, pretty much everyone was. I was in the science department so anybody who had to go to the bathroom just peed in a beaker. I kept going from classroom to classroom visiting friends and watching the news.

Then they announced that they were transferring all the student to the civic center by classes or also called an evacuation. Of course they had to make the science department one of the last to deport. About 1:15 they evacuated us and that wasn’t too bad. The SWAT team looked sharp with their vests and guns. When we got outside: there were cops and people everywhere. Then we all went to the civic center and they told us it was a hoax. I went to lunch and continued with my day.

- Cody