Penngrove Elementary School evacuated after lockdown - The Petaluma Argus-Courier

The transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students were starting to head to the playground to eat their lunches Monday when the announcement came over the loudspeaker at Penngrove Elementary School.

Everyone on campus was told to head to the nearest room, said Renna Salazar, a transitional kindergarten teacher.

“Drop what’s in your hands and we’re leaving,” Salazar recalled telling her students.

“Everyone is safe,” Penngrove Principal Carley Harp soon wrote in an electronic message to parents. “There is a strong presence from the Sheriff’s Department on campus. We will provide you with updates as soon as possible.”

What ensued was a late-morning-into-early-afternoon flurry of sirens, lights, sheriff’s deputies, helicopters, school buses and, eventually, a complete emptying of the school building at 365 Adobe Road as investigators probed an undisclosed threat.

Misti Wood, a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, said authorities got a report of a “possible school threat” at 11:36 a.m. The sheriff’s office was “looking into who this person was,” Wood said, but no other details were available.

As sheriff’s deputies, educators and firefighters worked to evacuate the school building, nearby Kenilworth Junior High School was placed on a less stringent “secure the campus” order, which meant classes took place behind locked doors. Kenilworth classes dismissed at about 2 p.m., said Amy Fadeji, communications coordinator with Petaluma City Schools.

On Monday evening, the Sonoma County Office of Education announced both schools would be closed Tuesday “following a threat made Monday, Oct. 14, at Penngrove Elementary.”

Though no threats were made to Kenilworth, its closure is a precautionary measure, according to the Office of Education. Both campuses are scheduled to reopen Wednesday.

By about 1:45 p.m. Monday, all of Penngrove Elementary was evacuated to the Rancho Adobe Fire station on Main Street, south of the school, located between Petaluma and Cotati.

According to state records, 477 students are enrolled at Penngrove Elementary. The fire station was filled with students’ families, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters as buses arrived.

By about 2 p.m., most families – with their children in tow – were leaving the fire station.

Several waiting parents cried and embraced each other while waiting for children to be dropped off. Helicopters could be seen flying in the school’s vicinity during the lockdown and as buses dropped off students.

“School safety is understandably a hot topic right now in our nation and it’s really important to the sheriff’s office that our kids are safe in our schools,” Wood, with the Sheriff’s Office, said. “It’s a really high priority for us.”

She later added, “When a school threat comes up, every single time, we take it very seriously.”

Penngrove Elementary School students evacuated to Rancho Adobe fire station after security incident at the school. See latest updates here: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/penngrove-elementary-school-lockdown/?ref=home-A1top

One parent who asked to remain anonymous was concerned about the lack of communication, stating that after he received the initial emailed notices, parents were not sure what time students would be evacuated as groups of parents anxiously awaited to be reunited with children.

Numerous parents and family members declined to comment as they stood outside craning their necks to see which students would disembark next from the buses.

For Salazar, the transitional kindergarten teacher, the “most upsetting” part of the lockdown’s initial phase was that some of her students were in separate areas on the school campus – some getting lunch with aides, outside, or in the classroom – during the announcement, and each group went to rooms closest to where they were.

She and the aides communicated throughout the lockdown via their cellphones to account for all 21 of her students. They used their phones instead of walkie-talkies to avoid exposing themselves to a possible threat, she said.

To her relief, Salazar and her students reunited on the bus with the help of sheriff’s deputies, she said.

She and her colleagues made the experience into a game to ease tension and avoid scaring the young children.

One teacher told the students there was a dog on campus, and Salazar related the bus ride to a story her students recently read about school buses.

“I told them they got a free ride to the firehouse. It was like a free field trip,” she said after she evacuated and all her students were reunited with their guardians.

“Everyone’s done a great job. Extra maintenance staff, sheriff’s here. They did a great job. Got out quick,” she said.

Staff Writer Colin Atagi contributed to this story.

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.