Emails from Pleasant Valley School District administrators obtained by a Right To Know request say there was no middle school lockdown March 1 despite social media rumors to the contrary.

“I am at the middle school and we are NOT in a lockdown,” Superintendent Dr. James Konrad wrote in an email to administrators just after 10:30 a.m. On March 1. “We have put kids on hallway restrictions and kids have told their parents we are in lockdown and now parents are arriving at PVM.”

In the email, Konrad said there were “concerns of an alleged threat” the previous evening but, after police investigated the incident, it was determined the threat was unfounded.

The threat stemmed from a middle school incident around dismissal on Feb. 29, Konrad wrote, in which a girl shouted down the hallway “she has a gun.”

“This morning we were continuing to investigate this incident and determined we would implement a ‘restrictive movement’, which means hallway restrictions and students would go to their normal class periods and lunches,” Konrad wrote. “It was reported some teachers communicated the words lockdown, and I am aware of at least one classroom that turned off the lights and hid in the back of the class.”

Despite the district’s statement that no lockdown took place, parents and district residents took to social media to dispute that.

“How can the school say that they didn’t have a lockdown when I have my daughter and two of her friends here telling me that they were not able to leave their classroom and there were police officers at every door,” Kelly Taylor posted on Facebook. “They were not even allowed to go to the bathroom without a police escort. Kids weren’t allowed to leave the cafeteria, they closed the doors to the cafeteria. I witnessed kids leaving the school crying.”

Jessie Johnson, meanwhile, posted, “How can they lie to parents and say it’s not true. “I’m so angry at how they are handling this situation with our children’s lives in their hands.”

Seventh-grader Mia Battagalino was in third period when around 10 a.m. the teacher got a call. Quickly, the teacher closed the door, turned out the lights, and told the students to shelter in place.

Mia’s father, Frank Battagalino, told the Times News his daughter told him she comforted a girl in her class who started crying. The girl had been through a similar situation at her old school.

Battagalino said as soon as his wife called him about the situation, he left to get their daughter at school.

He said he was surprised when he ended up driving behind police cars headed for the same place. When he got there, the parking lot had about 20 police cars in it.

He parked his car, got out and walked to the school where a large number of parents had already gathered to get their children.

Battagalino said there were so many parents there that staff had to come out with computers to take their names and check identification before they could release their children.

Battagalino said Pleasant Valley Middle School Principal Kendall Askins came out and told them everything was fine and their children were safe.

“(Askins) said there’s nothing going on,” Battagalino said, “so why such a show of police force.”

Diane Everitt, who has a son in sixth grade, said she didn’t know about the situation until her friend texted her. The friend had just received a text from her daughter.

At 10:08 a.m., Everitt texted her son that she was on her way to the school to pick him up. She didn’t hear anything from him.

She texted again at 10:28 a.m. to say she had arrived at the school. Finally, he texted back and said they aren’t allowed to leave. She told him she was taking him home.

Up to that point, she said she hadn’t received any information from the school district.

“We were all standing outside the school when I got the call from the school district,” Everitt said.

‘No threat’

According to the emails obtained through the right-to-know request, on the morning of March 1, Middle School Principal Kendal Askins emailed staff that “while we have no reason to believe that there is a threat to the building, we are taking all precautions at this time.”

Askins noted a police presence in the building and the activation of a “flight team.”

“There is additional support in the counselor’s office,” Askins wrote. “Do not hesitate to go and talk to someone today.”

Konrad acknowledged that students began texting their parents during the course of the day March 1 that the middle school was in a lockdown.

“Parents began to come to the school to pick up their kids and some even suggested that we are hiding info from parents,” Konrad wrote in an email. “There is NO threat! State police came to the school to make our school safer, but some parents assume with a large presence, there must be something serious.”

Following school on March 1, Konrad said, he planned to host a meeting in the middle school library discussing a difference between a lockdown and restrictive movement.

“We will incorporate this into future safety training for our staff,” he wrote.