Broken bus window prompts school lockdown

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- A broken window led to a two-hour lockdown Wednesday morning in the Shawnee Community Unit School District.

Superintendent Shelly Clover-Hill said a bus taking students to Shawnee Elementary North in Grand Tower, Ill., was traveling on Illinois State Highway 3 between 8:15 and 8:20 a.m. Wednesday when something hit a window.

"We had a bus window that was broken from an unknown object when it struck the window," Clover-Hill said.

School officials immediately implemented the district's emergency protocols, which include calling the Union County Sheriff's Department and locking down campuses until deputies give the all clear, Clover-Hill said.

Although the bus was headed to only one school, all the buildings in the district were locked down as a precaution, she said.

"If one [building] is on lockdown, we are all on lockdown," Clover-Hill said.

Students were uninjured, and classes resumed about two hours later, although deputies still were investigating Wednesday afternoon, she said.

"We're very grateful nobody was hurt," Clover-Hill said.

The Union County Sheriff's Department didn't respond to a phone call Wednesday afternoon seeking information about the investigation.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Wolf Lake, Ill.