Police officers did not find evidence of a threat in the vicinity of Hillcrest Elementary School after the principal reported hearing what sounded like gunshots in the neighborhood the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 6, according to Assistant Superintendent Dwight Lundstrom.

At around 3:10 p.m., Principal Paula Seaman and other staff members who were at the school’s playground led students inside the building, which was immediately placed in “secure” until 3:18 p.m., once law enforcement gave the all-clear, according to Lundstrom and a message sent to families.

When a school is put in secure, adults and staff bring everyone inside and lock the outside doors. After confirming that everyone is accounted for and increasing situational awareness, students and staff continue operations as usual.

According to Lundstrom, students and staff “recovered pretty quickly,” enjoying some sweet treats from Popsies after school.

This recent incident wasn’t the first of its kind in the district, Lundstrom said. A few years ago, Oak Harbor Elementary was placed on a lockout after a staff member reported seeing an individual openly carrying a firearm while walking near the school, which turned out not to be a threat. Last year, the decision was prompted by a bank robber on the run, he said.

Now, a lockout is called a secure as part of a new crisis response protocol that the Oak Harbor School District has adopted this year — the I Love U Guys Standard Response Protocol.

The I Love U Guys Foundation was started in 2006 by the parents of Emily Keyes, a student at Platte Canyon High School who texted her mother “I love u guys” before dying in a school shooting that same year. Since then, the foundation has created a series of free, data-driven programs that teach participating schools, agencies and organizations a common vocabulary and a series of steps to follow in emergency situations. The Coupeville and South Whidbey school districts have also adopted the safety program.

While many procedures were already in use at the district, I Love U Guys offers a clearer and more consistent terminology among schools and first responders, according to the district’s message to families.

Lundstrom said the old terminology was confusing. Students and staff would confuse lockouts with lockdowns for example, despite them being two very different procedures.

A secure can be executed in the scenario of a suspected threat in the vicinity of the school or, as Lundstrom mentioned, a bear or Bruiser the Elk walking around campus.

This is one of five actions that a school can take during a hazard — Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate and Shelter — all of which are described on the district’s “safety procedures” webpage.

Whenever one of these is executed, students and staff are given consistent action-specific instructions through the intercom, Lundstrom said. With thousands of schools adopting I Love U Guys, there is a good chance that new students have gone through the same training at their school of origin.

During a crisis situation it’s best to have muscle memory, he said. At the same time, staff are given more autonomy to problem solve based on the circumstances.

The safety procedures web page also includes tips for families during a secure event. Parents should probably not come to the school because they would be asked to remain outside while students stay indoors and attend class as they would normally do. It also might not be safe for a student to be released.

In some brief and non-violent scenarios, like a wild animal on the playground, parents may not be notified. Otherwise, the school should inform them.

On top of enhancing its crisis response, the Oak Harbor School District has been working on improving the safety of its buildings by creating single-point entries and installing six-foot-tall fences. Safety improvements are a costly requirement in a post-Columbine reality that districts are not adequately funded for, Lundstrom said.