FAIRWAY, Kan. — Nervous parents rushed to pick up their children and neighbors said they were frightened after gunfire forced a Mission elementary school into lockdown mode Friday afternoon.
Around 1:30 p.m., officials at Highlands Elementary School, 6200 Roe Ave., heard gunfire nearby, and the school was placed on lockdown. As police were conducting their investigation, a suspect at a home across the street in Fairway, Kansas, again fired shots. Police then returned fire, striking the suspect.
Annie McGinnis said the shots all occurred a short distance from her car as she waited to pick up her daughter at the school around 3 pm.
“I had a meltdown,” the mother said. “Just to know I was in harm’s way but the direction of everything was going towards the building that was holding my child.”
After police were able to stop and arrest the suspect, McGinnis said she was able to get to her daughter.
“I saw her coming down the hallway and it was like, ‘Thank goodness,’” she said. “Every single child got huge hugs. It was a big relief.”
During the shooting, staff and teachers inside Highlands Elementary worked to keep students calm and safe.
McGinnis’s 4th grade daughter, Melina, said the mood was much different inside the facility during all the violence nearby.
“We made jokes and were telling each other stories,” she said. “We just felt safe in our classrooms.”
Following the ordeal, the Shawnee Mission School District applauded the efforts of the team inside Highlands Elementary.
“The drill worked,” Shawnee Mission School District communications officer David Smith said. “People did exactly what we wanted them to do. If you prepare, then you’re ready.”
Parents received an email alerting them of the incident on Friday afternoon. Andrew Steinbacher, who has two children in second and fourth grades, said that after reading the email, he immediately left work and rushed home.
Steinbacher said the email told parents to stay away from the school and assured them that their children were safe. Parents were later advised to pick up their children from school by car.
“Police were escorting the kids out with a teacher. The teachers had a walkie talkie and you just told them your kid’s name (and) they would escort them out,” Steinbacher said. “It was like two-three or one-two at a time, it was trickling.”
Steinbacher lives directly across the street from the school. In his five years there, he said nothing like this has never happened before.
Other neighbors in the area were frightened to learn about the shooting.
“Well, it’s terrifying, and of course you never expect it in your own neighborhood, let alone near a school,” Jim Fisher said. “That’s just kind of really scary, especially when kids are involved.”
Other neighbors said they have seen police respond to the home at the intersection of 62nd Street and Roe Avenue before, though they said they never imagined a shooting would occur there.
No Highlands Elementary students or staff were injured in the incident.
