Denver students join gun violence protest the day after a lockdown at school

DENVER — Twenty-four hours later, the intercom sounding a crisis at Northfield High School still rings in Lindsey Williams’ head, like a never-ending nightmare.

The police officers and SWAT Team members lining the school’s greenery with guns larger than students had ever seen in their lives is a memory burned into Sammy Berman’s mind.

Margaret Freeman felt like time froze as she waited for someone to tell her class of sophomore high school students that this was just a drill.

The students were three of over 1,000 who experienced what they described as “the most horrifying moment of our lives,” on Thursday, when Northfield High School was placed on lockdown for about an hour after Denver Police received a report of a student with a gun. Two students were later taken into custody and a paintball gun was found in connection with the threat.

The next day on Friday, Williams, Berman and Freeman went to the State Capitol building to protest against gun violence when they spoke to Rocky Mountain PBS. 

They said before they knew the incident did not result in harm, students and administration at Northfield lived through an hour of horror as they hid in closets, barricaded doors and blocked lights, anticipating what they believed was an active shooter. The students said they were particularly on-edge because of a shooting earlier this week in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed at an elementary school.

“When stuff like the Texas shooting happens, I’m definitely more aware, but even then I still think this won’t happen to us, it can't happen to us,” Williams said. “And then yesterday was like ‘no, it actually can happen and it is happening to us.’”

Williams said the school goes through frequent active shooter drills, but the drills usually end within 10 minutes. When the clock passed the 10-minute mark, Williams said her peers went into shock.

“I think the scary thing about it was we didn’t know 100% if it was a drill or not for a while,” Williams said. “It was frightening, it ruined the whole day, and I feel like I haven’t been able to shake it since.”

Freeman, who is 15 years old, said preparing for an active shooter has been just as much a part of her school experience as learning to read.

“I can't drive, I can’t vote, I can't drink, but I’ve been raised to hide at school,” Freeman said. “It’s an insane reality that we live in.”

Having grown up hearing about shooting after shooting on television, Freeman said she is angered by the lack of change from those in power.

“The government is not doing anything and they’re making excuses and it’s putting children's lives at stake,” Freeman said. “You should not die for education in this country. The American dream is not to work hard and make a life for yourself only to have your child shot.”

After the lockdown was lifted, students said they left their classrooms to find rows of law enforcement efforts who looked like they were ready for a military envision, which was almost as traumatizing as the lockdown itself.

“We were marched out of our classroom, and we saw people with guns every 10 steps,” Berman said. “After being so worried about a gun threat, seeing more guns in one place that were larger than we’ve ever seen in our lives was horrifying.”

Though the warning ultimately resulted in a false alarm, the three students said they will remember the trauma that resulted for years to come.

“Even still, it feels like there was large amounts of damage already done,” Berman added.

Alison Berg is a multimedia journalist with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at alisonberg@rmpbs.org.