Mariners Elementary School locks down

Deepa Bharath Marisa O’Neil

Mariners Elementary School was on “lockdown” mode on Wednesday

morning after a suspected armed robber started a fire in a Dover

Shores home a few blocks away and police barricaded the area in an

attempt to locate the suspect.

The school was locked down at about 10:30 a.m. after Newport Beach

police advised them to do so, said Jane Garland, a spokeswoman for

the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

“All the classrooms were locked from the inside,” she said.

Parents were called and told that they or someone designated on

emergency cards could pick up their children, Garland said.

“The parent writes down the student’s name, and a district person

goes to the class, shows their badge to the teacher, and they give us

the child,” she said. “Then we walk him back to the parent.”

Those children who were not picked up by their parents right away

waited until school let out at 2:10 p.m. or took the bus home,

Garland said.

“It went very smoothly,” she said. “It’s not the kind of thing we

like to see happen, but we’re prepared. Teachers know they’re safe in

the classrooms, and we tell the students they’re safe. No one was

alarmed, no one was upset.”

Parents who came to take their children home said they were happy

with the way the school handled the situation.

“The school did a really great job,” Lonie Murr said. “They

delivered lunches to the classroom. They were cordial to parents.”

As for the students, some of them panicked and others didn’t,

fifth-grader Krista Murr said.

“We were supposed to ask who was at the door every time somebody

knocked on the door,” she said. “Some of the kids went under the desk

every time someone knocked. I guess they were scared.”

Fifth-grader Haley Boyko said she saw a huge cloud of smoke

swirling at a distance.

“They asked us to turn the lights off in the classroom and sit

down,” she said.

A few parents said they saw the television news and decided to

come down to the school.

“I also heard from another mom,” said Laura Joslin, who was

picking up her son. “Everybody was calm.”