Lafayette School Officials Say They Weren't Informed Immediately About Lockdown

Concerns were raised Friday about the communication between Lafayette police and school officials during a search for a bank robbery suspect.

Lafayette School District Superintendent Rachel Zinn said her office as well as Stanley Middle School and Lafayette Elementary School were not directly informed by police about the lockdown status as officers searched for the robbery suspect on Thursday morning.

Zinn said school officials learned of the lockdown status after they got a Nixle alert in the midst of the search.

Zinn said she asked Lafayette Elementary officials to keep their students in during a recess period, but Stanley was an open campus during the entire two-hour search.

Patch could not reach Lafayette Police Chief Eric Christensen for comment. However, in the city manager's weekly report on Lafayette's website, Christensen posted a note saying he learned some valuable lessons from Thursday's incident.

The chief said he wasn't able to reach everyone as quickly as he wanted because of the organization involved in getting the search launched. He also said he failed to have his dispatchers notify the library.

He said in the future he will activate the Nixle system earlier. The chief urged everyone to sign up for this notification.

Zinn said her main focus now is to speak with authorities and work out channels of communications. She said she realizes police were busy searching for the robber and communication may have been confused.

Zinn sent an email to parents on Thursday afternoon, telling them about the situation.

"Please know that the safety of our students and staff is of the highest priority," Zinn wrote. "We have serious concerns that we were not directly informed of the lockdown, and we will be in close contact with the police department as a result."

Two parents contacted Patch with concerns that schools were not locked down while police were searching for a potentially armed suspect.