Student Made Up Story About Gunman at Cupertino Middle School

The multi-school lockdown that occurred Friday morning turned out to be a fabricated story by a Cupertino Middle School student, officials said.

The student, who is not being named because he is a minor, is being interviewed at Sunnyvale Public Safety headquarters, spokesman Sgt. Dave Verbrugge said.

It all started around 10:30 a.m. when the male student went to his teacher and said he saw a man with a gun on the playing field.

The teacher called the principal who alerted an officer who was on campus dealing with another situation, Verbrugge said.

Police locked down the entire campus and surrounding roads and began their search. Deputies from Santa Clara County Sheriff's department were on hand as well.

Nearby schools such as Homestead High School and West Valley Elementary School were placed on lockdown as a precaution, and Patch readers reported “Early Horizons on Lewiston, which shares space with the French-American school and DeLor Montessori” and “Resurrection Catholic School on Hollenbeck/Cascade is also on voluntary lock down.”

The student who made the claim was in the principal’s office while police searched the campus.

“They continued to interview him and check his story,” Verbrugge said.

And as things didn’t match up, the boy admitted he made up the whole story.

He will probably be issued a citation for filing a false police report then go to juvenile court, and Verbrugge said depending on the outcome of the interview and a discussion with the boy’s parents, there could be more charges.

Nobody was hurt during the incident, but Verbrugge said there was certainly damage done by the fear the claim put in parents, students and the school staff and faculty.

When the lockdown was lifted around 1:30 p.m. a “controlled release” of students at Cupertino Middle School was conducted, according to Cupertino Union School District spokesman Jeremy Nishihara.