PEMBERVILLE, OH (Toledo News Now) - Police in Wood County are working to find out how a bullet ended up inside a Pemberville school.
Eastwood High School went on "modified lock-down" around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning after a bullet was found inside a restroom. The school's superintendent says the lock-down was lifted after about an hour.
"One of the things it allowed us to do was review all the camera footage, of students moving in and out of the bathroom during the day, so we had a chance to interview those students, search everything, didn't find any weapons, didn't find anything else," said Superintendent Brent Welker.
Once the building was clear, he says students were back to business as usual. Welker says this isn't the first time this has happened. A couple of years ago, some bullets were found in a restroom, but the position of the cameras in the school at the time were too far away. He says that wasn't the case, this time around.
"We actually, after that incident, moved the cameras into a much better proximity, which allowed us to more quickly identify students, which allowed us to conduct interviews, do searches. So, we were able to, within 50 minutes of the information coming in, we had our kids back moving within the school day again," said Welker.
The Wood County Sheriff's Office had their school resource officer on site, along with some other deputies, to help investigate. Sheriff Wasylyshyn says they are still looking into who placed the bullet in the bathroom. He stresses that this is a very serious situation.
"It's serious and I think when someone thinks about, 'gee, it might be funny to do something like that,' they get caught, and there are serious consequences," said Wasylyshyn.
Superintendent Welker says when things like this happen, they begin an investigation immediately, for the safety of their staff and students.
"Safety is paramount. You want to make sure that you're taking care of the kids. Parents entrust us with their most prized possessions every day," said Welker.
Sheriff Wasylyshyn says at this point, it does appear that the bullet was placed in the bathroom as a prank.
