On Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 11:37 a.m. Principal Michelle Kefford announced over the school P.A. system that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and all other schools throughout Broward County were put on a secure code. This arose after multiple hoax calls were made  to Broward County Public Schools threatening local high schools. According to Kefford, MSD is not one of the high schools included in the threats, but for extra security to ensure safety of all BCPS high school students, all schools were put on a secure code.

“Multiple hoax calls to Broward County were made threatening high schools in the district,” Kefford said on during the announcement. “MSD was not included in the schools threatened, I repeat MSD was not included in the schools threatened.”

A secure code entails that students and staff all stay in their classrooms and lock the outside doors, but normal class work can continue.

Originally, BCPS followed a yellow, green, red and black code schedule up until the 2022-2023 school year when the district altered the vocabulary used for these codes. The language has not changed however and a presentation at the beginning of the school year was given to all students so they were familiar with the new titles.

At 12:00 p.m., less than an hour later, Kefford and Assistant Principal Jay Milmed announced MSD was no longer on a secure code and gave the all clear announcement. It was not released what threats were made and/or which BCPS schools were involved in the hoax calls.

However, no students at MSD or any other schools were harmed.