Anne Nguyen’s classroom was abnormally silent during class on Tuesday afternoon. Instead of working on assignments, she and her students whispered to each other while checking their phones, waiting to be notified of their safety. Each of them watched the clock as the two-hour lockdown approached hour three.

On Tuesday, March 26, the Sport Medical Science Academy in Hartford received a phone call about a threat of firearm violence and immediately went into a Code Red lockdown, in which all activity in the building must come to stop and everyone must secure themselves in a safe environment.

“I was responsible for the well-being of 50 bodies in my room and that was exhausting. It’s on me and I am responsible for them. As a teacher, I know the difference between a fake lockdown and the real deal but [the students] don’t,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen has been a teacher for Hartford Public Schools for 18 years. In her time, she has handled many drills, lockdowns and suicide attempts from students, but she recalls her most recent experience as the most serious.

“You can prepare all you want, but stuff happens, mistakes happen and things happen. Not everyone is going to react the way you expect or do what you think,” Nguyen stated. “None of us can unfeel what we felt though. They can say ‘well it wasn’t real,’ but that doesn’t change what I felt when it happened, you can’t unsee it.”

According to the police report, the called-in threat came from a computer-generated app used overseas. They believe it was a case of ‘swatting’ and are continuing to investigate the situation.

“It takes a toll on everybody here, from the parents to the police officers, to the students themselves, to the [faculty]. We don’t take this lightly at all,” Lt. Paul Cicero of the Hartford Police Department said.

A few days after the incident, Nguyen warned her class of the potential of a threat happening again, “We live in a time where this will happen again. And it may not be [at SMSA] again, but it [will] happen again next week somewhere else or when you go off to college. Unfortunately, this is not the last time,” Nguyen shared.

In a time where an active shooter situation can pop up anywhere, Connecticut high schools and universities have made efforts to approach and handle the incidents in the best way possible.

Many universities, including Central Connecticut, use Emergency Notification Systems to inform students, faculty and staff of any potential threats around campus.

This past Sunday, University of Hartford had to use their notification system, UHTXT, to notify individuals of a threat on campus, in which a student was on roaming campus after allegedly stabbing two fellow students in one of the on-campusing housing units.

The University immediately went into lockdown after the incident and notified campus faculty, staff and students of the danger through texts and tweets on their Twitter page. Shortly after announcing the emergency, the campus closed until it was deemed safe by authorities later in the day.

In the event of an emergency, Central Connecticut will notify people with the emergency notification system, CCSU ALERT, and external loudspeakers across campus. Alerts and updates will also be posted on the university website and Twitter page to keep people updated.

According to CCSU Emergency Preparedness & Response, if an active shooter situation was to occur on campus, the university recommends three basic options to handle the situation: run, hide or fight, emphasizing taking action as a last resort. It is advised for people to remain calm and to keep oneself and others out of potential danger.

For more information, please visit the Central Police Department page.