Updated: 3:11 p.m.:
Students in Cupertino high schools were asked to stay home Wednesday, while elementary and middle schools are open but in lockdown as police continue to search for an armed gunman.
The Fremont Union High School District was notified of the gunman at 7:30 a.m., said district public information officer Bettylu Smith. This was enough time to tell 10,500 students in the district not to come to school via an emergency notification system, which alerts parents through email and phone messages.
The students who did come to school were kept indoors and were in no immediate danger, she said. They are now being allowed to go home with an adult, and administrators will make a decision regarding school tomorrow later today.
Four out of the five high schools in the district were scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. on a late start schedule today, she said, but Homestead High School was scheduled to start at the normal time. 20 percent of Homestead students arrived, and 10 percent of Cupertino High School students came to school. Numbers from the other three schools are not known at this time.
Shootings that began at Lehigh Cement plant Wednesday morning and continued in the Homestead Road and Tantau Avenue area prompted the alert.
Police said the shooter, identified by Santa Clara County Sheriff's as Shareef Allman, is a disgruntled employee of Lehigh and is also suspected to be the same person who carjacked and shot a woman in the Homestead Road area.
Cupertino Union School District spokesman Jeremy Nishihara said that all elementary and middle schools are open but in lockdown as police continue to search for the shooter. They are awaiting further instructions from the Sheriff's Office, he said.
Seagate Technology, at the corner of Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards is reportedly on lockdown, as well.
