MARION COUNTY, Fla. – Forest High School was placed on a temporary, precautionary lockdown Friday morning after a firearm was located in a restroom, according to school officials and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post at 10:58 a.m. that the lockdown would remain in place until deputies could ensure no further threats were posed to students and employees of the school. At 12:13 p.m., the sheriff’s office updated the post to say that the school had been cleared and normal operations had resumed, adding deputies would continue to investigate.
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According to a statement from Marion County Public Schools, the campus was placed on a Code Yellow lockdown.
The school district’s protocols for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate drills (ALICE) stipulate that under Code Yellow, ”all school doors will be locked and regular classroom instruction continues behind the locked doors.”
Deputies urged parents to avoid coming to the school to pick up their children while the safety sweep was being conducted.
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