A school being placed on lockdown has a very unsettling quality, maybe because the word itself carries a weight we borrowed from the pandemic years and now apply to something much older and more terrifying. Parents in Watlington, a small town in Oxfordshire, found out on Thursday afternoon that Icknield Community College, a school that typically only appears in the local newspapers for summer festivals or sports day photos, had turned into the focal point of a police operation.
Around 1:00 PM, the first messages started to circulate. Parents were informed in a succinct and well-written message that the school was under lockdown and that no one could enter the premises. Although the rationale was pragmatic—the school didn’t want anyone interfering with the police’s work on the scene—parents who read it in parking lots, kitchens, or offices often have more questions than answers. What danger? Which type of police? Were the kids secure? A later note from the school attempted to allay these concerns by reiterating that staff and students were under supervision and remained safe. However, a parent’s imagination is most likely to run amok in the space between message and meaning.
This is not the kind of thing that occurs in Watlington. Nestled beneath the Chiltern hills, it’s a market town where you can stroll down the main thoroughfare in ten minutes and still run into someone you know. Icknield attracts students from all over this rural area of Oxfordshire, and the lunch bell is likely the loudest event on campus most days. It seems almost out of character for the location to imagine police cars lining the road outside while teachers gathered in classrooms inside.
After receiving what was described as a malicious communication, Thames Valley Police later confirmed that the school had decided to go into lockdown; notably, however, the decision was not made on police advice. The force took care to state that no threat to the public was believed to exist. Even though it sounds calm and formal, it’s worth pausing. It implies that whoever made the call knew precisely where to aim it and that the threat, whatever it was, was limited to the school itself.
The school sent out its second message by mid-afternoon. There was no longer a lockdown. After spending more than an hour and a half inside with staff trying to maintain order, students were permitted to return to the regular location. According to the statement, the threat was considered credible, which is somewhat more concerning than if it had been completely disregarded. Credible does not equate to executed. However, it means that it went too far, and senior staff and police had to treat it as fact.
Schools in Yorkshire, Surrey, Sussex, and now Oxfordshire are all responding to phone calls or emails that eventually turn out to be hoaxes or threats from people with grudges or worse. It’s difficult to ignore how frequently these incidents occur across the nation. It’s unclear if this most recent case fits that pattern. The police have only provided the most basic information, and the investigation is still ongoing.
For the time being, Icknield’s gates are open once more, and classes will resume. However, there has been a subtle change in how small town schools view their own security. An afternoon takes on a new form when a phone rings.
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