Framingham High Principal: Counseling Available & No Homework After Today’s ‘Traumatic Day’

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FRAMINGHAM – An individual changing a battery in Framingham High School’s active shooter alarm system, set off an alarm that alerted more than 2,400 students plus teachers & staff that there was an active shooter in J Hall at Framingham High this morning, February 17. It was a false alarm but for those at the high school it felt real.

“Today was, without question, an incredibly frightening and traumatic day. As a mother of school aged children, I can only imagine how difficult it was for our parents and caregivers as well. While today was a false threat and never should have happened, our students and staff did exactly what we would have wanted them to do in this situation. Our staff took care of our students, our students took care of each other, including the infants and toddlers in our early childhood center,” said Acting Principal Amy Gerade in an email to families just before 5 p.m.

“I am extremely grateful for the quick response of the Framingham Police Department who ensured our collective safety. I also would like to thank our surrounding neighbors as they helped our students who were in their front yards during the incident,” said Principal Gerade.

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“As traumatic as today was for many, I want to provide our community with some identified, short term next steps:Many of our students left their belongings in school which is what they should have done. To that end, we will be opening up the building tomorrow, Saturday, February 18th, from 10am to 2pm for students to pick up their belongings in the classroom in which they were left. We will be doing this in an organized manner and will be as follows,” she wrote.

• Grade 9 students 10-11
• Grade 10 students 11-12
• Grade 11 students 12-1
• Grade 12 students 1-2

“Students will enter the front doors of the school building and will go with a staff member to their classroom to collect their own belongings. Students may also pick up a sibling’s belongings but may not collect another classmate’s belongings. Counselors will also be available at that time for staff, students and families to help process today’s events. Counseling support is free of charge, confidential, and does not require insurance,” the Principal emailed.

“While I know February break is next week, we will also open up the building for students to collect their belongings as well as provide additional counseling support. As a reminder, counseling support is free of charge, confidential, and does not require insurance. We will open the building from 9am to 12pm and then again from 1pm to 4pm Tuesday through Friday next week. Please note that Monday is a holiday and we will not be open,” wrote Principal Gerade.

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“Finally, we will be adopting a no homework policy over break. Any deadlines or due dates for the week of February 27th will be extended. Teachers will communicate directly with students on what the new deadlines will be. In order to allow extra processing time with students, all students will start their day on February 27th in their B block class as it will be important for our students and staff to process today’s events together,” wrote the acting Principal.

“I would like to close by saying how extremely proud I am of our students and staff. We will emerge from this incident stronger as a community. I will be communicating with students and families about the schedule for Monday, February 27th as it will be important for us to come together and process the experience. Additional counseling support will be available as we return to school as well. I am so thankful to serve the students, staff, and families of Framingham High School,” concluded the email.

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