By Ali Pierce, staff writer, and Nick Girolami, photo and web editor

Packed shoulder to shoulder in the hidden corners of classrooms and offices, staff and students wondered what was going on as they sat in the dark.

On Tuesday, the 24th around 10:15 a.m. students at Plainwell High School were getting ready to head to their next class when Principal Jeremy Wright announced a lockdown. The lockdown was put in action by Plainwell Public Safety  and Superintendent Matt Montange due to a robbery, according to Wright.

An armed robber who may have had children at Plainwell schools was at large in the area, prompting Plainwell Public Safety to call for a lockdown. Kalamazoo Central High School and Gull Lake High School also went into lockdown. It was later revealed that the man, Matthew Steppenwolf, had robbed a gas station at gunpoint, and set fire to a house in Cooper Township before shooting a woman in the chest, and stealing a car in Kalamazoo County. He has since faced being charged with ten counts that include armed robbery and carjacking.

While all of the students in the building were hiding, the VOTEC students were arriving on a bus to what was supposed to be first lunch.  

“I didn’t know what was going on, I noticed nobody was eating lunch yet and the lunch room was empty,” said Maddy Keely ‘18.

The VOTEC students had to wait on the bus for 5-10 minutes until they were let into the school.  

“When we all go into the school is was freaky because we had finally figured out what was going on, they tried fitting all of us kids into the counseling office at first,” said Keely.

They were eventually moved into the nearby computer lab.

There were no police at the high school during the lockdown because they were occupied with further duties.

“I had to walk up and down the hallways to check if the all the doors were locked or not,” said hall monitor Larry Ash.

He he had to check three different hallways: the math, english, and science hallways.

“I walked out to the parking lots to look for any kids who may have been getting back from VOTEC, there were a few that were still in their cars,” said Wright.

As PHS students have gone through multiple lockdown drills, many were taken by surprise when they found out it was not a drill. Many simply found ways to pass the time during what seemed to be a routine procedure.

“My friends and I were watching Netflix assuming it was just a drill, but once we were sitting their for a while I took a nap,” said Caleigha Lanarde ‘18.

“I was in Mrs. Root’s room, kids were being pretty loud,” said John Asselneier ‘20.

Asselneier said he was scared at first when he found out it was a real lockdown, not just practice.

Once everything was announced to be safe, and under control all classes were released around 11:30 for an extended all-school lunch period. Students reported back to their third hour at 12:15 to carry on with their afternoon classes.

Following the lockdown, Montange sent out an email to  administration giving feedback on how the lockdown went.

“ It is clear that our staff did an excellent job of following procedures, supporting and reassuring our students combined with keeping calm and leading in a confusing high pressure situation.  The district received a lot of positive feedback regarding this situation and I am very proud of our staff and students,” said Montange in his email.