‘Gunna’ to ‘gunman’ auto-correct prompts school lockdown
Nervous police and school officials locked down two adjacent Georgia schools for two hours Wednesday after hearing a report about a text message that seemed to warn of a gunman present on campus, reports the Gainesville Times.
What appeared to be a threat to West Hall middle and high schools in Gainesville, however, turned out to be an errant auto-corrected text sent to a wrong number, the police discovered. The text, which police traced to a student, read "gunman be at west hall today," instead of the intended "gunna be at west hall today." Further, the community member who reported what seemed to be a threatening text was not the intended recipient.
The lockdown comes three days after a school shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio, in which three students were killed. Authorities told the Gainesville newspaper that the person who reported it "did the right thing."
"It was a combination of odd circumstances," Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks of the Hall County Sheriff's Department, told the paper. "We want to emphasize that the recipient did the right thing in reporting the message."
The lockdown at both schools, which began before noon and ended at 1:45 p.m., was "standard procedure," according to a statement from West Hall Superintendent Will Schofield.
"I am extremely proud of our school team members as they handled a challenging situation well," he said. "While this event caused a great deal of anxiety among students, staff and parents, be assured that we will always err on the side of caution when it comes to the safety of our boys and girls."
(Source: digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com)
