Urbandale High School Locks Down Following Student Melt Down

Despite texts from alarmed students during Tuesday afternoon's lockdown at , the student at the center of it was not armed with anything more deadly than a pair of rounded-edged school scissors. 

Principal Richard Hutchinson posted a note on the school's website that said around 1:30 p.m. a student “became out of control” and the “decision was made to go into a lockdown to make sure everyone was safe.”

"At no time were there any weapons involved," wrote Hutchinson.

Urbandale School Superintendent Doug Stilwell said Tuesday night that the student experienced some emotional behavior problems, but that she was kept in a classroom alone until her parents arrived at the school and that no other students were involved in the incident.

"Kids were texting other people, saying someone had a weapon," said Stilwell, but the decision to put the school in lockdown was a logistical one aimed at keeping the hallways cleared so the girl's parents could take her home without incident.

"The parents were able to escort her out of the building. That really helped to de-escalate the situation," said Stilwell.

Stilwell said Principal Hutchinson made the lock down decision, working with the school's resource officer Curt Vajgrt and other police officers who had been summoned for help.

Police Chief Ross McCarty said the girl was spinning a pair of the blunt-edged school scissors on a desk and that officers asked her  to  stop, but Stillwell added: "I would consider those a cutting instrument, not a weapon."

Stilwell said during the lockdown, all students stayed in the rooms they were in. He didn't know how long the lockdown lasted but said, the incident was "a textbook case" of how a lockdown should work.