Paper hearts lingered around the hallways labeled with student’s names. The sugary-sweet smell of heart-shaped lollipops.  Students dressed in shades of red and pink walking around with gifts and flowers.

It was Valentine’s Day. 

And what was expected to be a day devoted to love and celebration– ended with one pop. 

On Feb. 14, 2023, the high school faced a reality that no student, staff, or administrator ever thought they would meet.  The school was on a hard lockdown- nobody in, nobody out. Dark classrooms with over a dozen students packed in a corner, illuminated only by the dim light from their cellphones as they sent frenzied texts to loved ones. Administrators and law enforcement swarming the school looking for answers. Everyone on campus that day has their own personal and unique story from that fateful Valentine’s Day. 

Around noon, reports came through to administrators, specifically through their walkie talkies during second lunch, that possible shots were heard in the main hallway, between the 300 and 400 halls. Many students and teachers were in the very midst of their lunch, or working in classrooms. After announcement of the lockdown was made, students and staff were filled with mixed emotions. Some had never felt the intense and panic-inducing fear that came along with the lockdown. Some simply kept a level head and waited for the situation to end. 

“I felt a strong responsibility to support my frightened classmates. Many were sending ‘I love you’ messages to their parents, which shows the gravity of the situation,” senior Diego Montoya said. “Seeing their distress, I realized the need to bring some light into our classroom. To ease their anxiety, I engaged in heartfelt and witty conversations to distract them from the uncertainties outside our classroom walls.” 

It wasn’t just students who were frightened by the threat of the lockdown. Just like students, many teachers had never experienced that type of fear. While students, huddled in the dark classrooms felt the uncertainty and fear that followed the pop, many staff members were just as scared. 

“I was really scared because I didn’t know what was happening – at all.  I had no idea,” senior English teacher Celeste Zachry said.  “As the hours wore on, I grew increasingly nervous and sent out ‘the texts’.  I never dreamed, as a teacher, that I would be texting my children and closest loved ones to tell them the things I would want to say, in case it was the last time they ever heard from me.  I don’t think I was being overly dramatic in doing that; I was genuinely scared.” 

A lot of people had never thought to even consider what that fear is actually like. Growing up, change happened from seeing school shootings in the media and being told ‘that would never happen in our small town’ to being a high school student or a teacher and suddenly being faced with what was always said would never happen. The fear of losing life or having full uncertainty of what might happen next was an emotion that a lot of individuals had never experienced before.

“For some kids, for some adults, especially the older adults in this building, they had never felt that type of fear in their life before; that was interesting to me,” Pre-AP English teacher Kristen Ayars said. “I mean, we were hiding in the teachers lounge bathroom and could hear the SWAT team yelling back and forth. That made it so much more real and terrifying for me and the others I was with.”

Just when the school was almost completely sealed off and searched through, a 911 call came through of a student falsely reporting that a classmate had a gun with them during the lockdown. This simple call made the entire situation worsen. Law enforcement from all across Johnson County gathered in order to help search and protect the school. After each student and staff member was thoroughly examined by SWAT team members and law enforcement, and each classroom was evacuated, law enforcement and administrators carefully covered footage and took in witness accounts in order to piece the story together. By the end of that day, it was found that the phone call reports were false, and the loud metallic pop heard around the school– was a balloon.

There was quite a large after shock of knowing that the entirety of the lockdown was all due to a high pressure balloon popping. The rest of the day and the following days, the hallways were quieter as students and staff processed what happened. The shock was heavy as there was an abundance of police enforcement from surrounding towns, a helicopter, SWAT teams, and even the Fort Worth FBI was on standby, all for a Valentine’s Day balloon. Though the outcome was of no threat to anyone, and thankfully nobody was seriously injured, the incident still left people feeling shaken up by an event nobody planned to go through that day. 

“The JHS Valentine balloon pop heard around the world had an intense effect on me. I have been a teacher for 27 years and no single incident has impacted as much as the ‘balloon pop’… I am not easily scared by things – and this scared me,” Zachry said.  “I never imagined, when I was in college to become a teacher, I would find myself afraid of being in a public school and that makes me incredibly sad that our world has become so frighteningly dangerous because people have grown uncaring of other humans.  There were a lot of people scared that day, likely because of one or two people.  That’s neither right nor fair.” 

Fortunately though, the incident was a very rich learning experience for educators and administrators in the district. It was a real-life practical experience that the district was able to learn from and gather what could be done better in the future if anything similar were to happen. 

“We got to find out what worked, and what didn’t work so well. You know, it was a very good learning experience for us,” Assistant principal Mike Clayton said.  “Afterwards, I listened to all the other radio broadcasts, watched all of our cameras, and watched how our administrators and SROs reacted. It gave us different ways to look at it and access these kinds of situations. We changed a lot of things and we got a lot of practice from it. After the training we did to teach us from this experience, we can now have a better response to these kinds of situations.” 

While the incident was extremely frightening and an occurrence that no student would want to go through, it has shaped everyone involved for the better. As a campus, we are now better equipped, students have experience and will take these situations more seriously, and everyone has a sense of awareness of just how important safety issues like these truly are. 

“While that event was frightening for me, I am so impressed with the response of our administration and all of the first responders.  I truly never imagined I would be in a situation like this, but it was a huge relief to me that it was taken so seriously,” Zachry said. “ When I was finally released from my classroom, I was searched at gunpoint. That may sound intense, and it was, but it was also a huge relief knowing everyone was doing their job to ensure we were safe.”