‘It’s not a drill:’ Teens and parents relieved after high school lockdown ends

Within an hour of a suspect being arrested and the lockdown ending at F.W. Johnson Collegiate, the area around the east-end Regina school looked almost like any other high school at lunchtime.

Teens were wandering around with binders under their arms, but on Friday, those ones were talking about the lockdown that was prompted by someone showing up at school with a gun.

Some were saying how scared they were, while others talked about shaking in class.

F.W. Johnson Collegiate in Regina (980 CJME)

Chaim Moiside was in his Grade 9 gym class first thing in the morning when the announcement about a lockdown came down.

“I thought it was a drill but then the teachers started running and I’m like, ‘It’s not a drill,’ ” said Moiside.

“We … sat down by the bleachers, turned off all the lights (and) locked the doors. And then two teachers locked one of the doors in the gym that wouldn’t lock (and) they barricaded it with a bench and a cart.”

Moiside said the teachers then herded the students into the equipment room, but it wasn’t big enough for all of them, so some — including him — were taken to an office in the gym. He said they were packed in there for a long time, long enough for his legs to start cramping.

Moiside said he wasn’t scared, but admitted he may have been nervous.

“I was calm before the fire alarms started, so when the fire alarms started I’m like, ‘I don’t like this,’ ” he explained.

Moiside was outside the school with his mother, speaking with a kind of nervous energy. His mother, Letecia Vanduzee, said she was really worried.

“I couldn’t get ahold of anybody to find out what was going on,” she said.

She said she was pretty relieved when she saw her son coming out of the building.

There were several parents at the school who came to personally pick up their kids. Renee Inouye was standing outside her vehicle waiting for her son to come out.

“As soon as I heard the news, I started feeling sick to my stomach and dropped everything and called my husband. He came and got me and we got here as soon as we could get the clear to come and get him,” said Inouye.

As she was standing there, she was relieved.

“I can’t wait to hold him, love him (and) not let him go,” Inouye said.

Students were let out for lunch but classes were expected to resume for the afternoon. However, Inouye wasn’t about to send her son back.

“Mine’s coming home and he’s staying home,” she said.

She said they’d cross the bridge about him going back on Monday when they got to it.

On Friday morning, Regina police said they’d been called to the school for a report of a person with a gun and that’s what people at the school had been talking about as well.

Shortly before lunch, police said a suspect had been arrested. The lockdown at Johnson was lifted around 11:30 a.m., as was the secure-the-building orders at six nearby elementary schools.