NEW BERLIN – First thing Friday morning, Unadilla Valley schools initiated their first ever spontaneous, district-wide, lockdown procedure when students came forward with reports of a fellow student possessing a handgun in school.

Unadilla Valley Superintendent, Bob Mackey, called for a lockdown just as he arrived at school Friday morning. Students came to the secondary school office reporting that they had seen what looked like a handgun in another student's backpack. They reported the other student's name and said that they had tried to talk the student into coming with them and bringing the backpack to the office. The student did not want to do that.

“When I was brought up to speed on the events of the morning, we went into a lockdown,” said Mackey. “With the school resource officer's assistance, the student advocate's assistance, the High School Principal and myself, we went to the class that the student was in and removed him from class.”

Mackey went on to explain that the student then brought the administrators to the locker in question, where they proceeded to search the locker and the bag and did find what looked like a pellet gun – in the shape of a handgun. “It looked a lot like something you would see in the movies – a .44 Magnum or a 9 mm. type handgun, said Mackey. “I can see where it would look incredibly real to the students – it looked pretty real to us. It didn't look like a toy.”