‘It was very real for me’: Fairview, Southern Hills lockdown call a mistake

Less than 23 hours after a student shot two of his fellow students before fatally shooting himself at Evergreen High School, Boulder’s Fairview High School and Southern Hills Middle School mistakenly locked down after a report of a man with a gun outside the building.

During the lockdown, one student hid alone in a doorless restroom, not knowing there wasn’t a real threat. Some parents have expressed concern that the threat response at schools such as Fairview and Southern Hills has gone overboard.

On Sept. 11, a report of a man with a gun near Fairview in south Boulder prompted lockdowns at two schools and a shelter-in-place order for the neighborhood before police determined the man in question was a runner wearing a weighted vest and holding his phone.

When police arrived, a patrol s