At 10:28 a.m., the Foothill campus went on precautionary lockdown due to a police chase with an armed suspect in the vicinity of the school.

According to Principal Joe Bova, “several times during the year, a precautionary lockdown [is] put in place by the Ventura Police Department [VPD].” 

This particular lockdown was instigated by “a chase, apparently with an armed suspect,” which occurred within a “quarter-mile range of the school,” Bova said.

He stated that the school was signaled to go into lockdown by School Resource Officer Matt Thompson, and then the administration “put the information out” to the whole school.

“I try to let students know what is going on so that people aren’t freaking out, like ‘this is a chase, it’s not an imminent danger, or anything like that,’” Bova said.

In order to prepare for such situations, teachers undergo “training at the beginning of the year” and learn “safety procedures,” according to Assistant Principal Tina Perez.

“There’s a system in place of what processes to do,” and during any lockdown, information is distributed from a “command center” to the entire school, Perez said.

The lockdown was “super quick and […] precautionary,” Perez summarized, because, according to Bova, the VPD “apprehended the person very quickly.”

“The main focus wasn’t the school because it wasn’t concerned with the school,” Perez stated.