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Safety officials release detailed timeline of Lake Brantley code red drill mishap

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — Safety and security officials with Seminole County Public Schools are speaking out after an unannounced code red drill at Lake Brantley High School caused confusion and panic 13 days ago.

Capt. Rick Francis gave board members a timeline of events that took place that day and updated them on some changes that will be coming in the wake of the panic that had students running in fear for their lives.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office prefaced the report to the school board with some facts.

"We started doing announced drills in 2013-2014 school year,” Francis said. “Since then, we've completed approximately 600 announced and unannounced drills without incident."

Francis proceeded to discuss a timeline of events on December 6 that sent students at Lake Brantley High School into a panic.

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According to that timeline, the unannounced code red drill happened at 10:20 a.m.

A minute later, a staff member activated the rave soft panic app button, and at 10:33 a.m. an all-clear was announced over the Public Address system.

But about 40 minutes after the drill ended at 11:20 a.m., a new chain of events unfolded.

"At 11:20, a PA announcement was made over the intercom during lunchtime that used some key words that caused an incident,” Francis said. “That was roughly an hour after the drill had concluded."

Previous story: False threat sends Lake Brantley H.S. into panic

Francis said through their investigation, they noted several shortcomings that day that caused the chaos, including the fact that a message, sent through an app and meant for staff members only, got into the hands of students.

Francis said moving forward, there will be a universal message sent to the community to prevent confusion in the future.

"If the school fails to send a message, the district PIO or myself can send those messages," Francis said.

A board member asked if they will be conducting code red drills in the lunch room in the future. Francis told the board member, “Yes, they will happen.”

Channel 9 obtained records of 911 calls from concerned parents about an unannounced code red drill at Lake Brantley High School 11 days ago.

School officials said there were no problems with the drill, but what followed was a series of missteps that caused chaos among students and staff members.

Many students and staff members believed there was a real code red following the drill, officials said.

Thirty-four parents and others called 911 asking authorities to clarify what was happening at the school.

Cellphone video captured the panic as students stampeded out of the cafeteria, fearing an active shooter was on campus.

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School officials said a student took a picture of a code red message on a teacher’s cellphone and posted the message an hour after an unannounced code red drill had been conducted.

At the same time, a school administrator announced on an intercom that the code red alert was merely a drill, but some students only heard the words "code red," officials said.

School officials said there was construction going on at the school as well as a news helicopter flying overhead because of the drill.

Students and teachers began to text parents and loved ones, fearing for their lives, Channel 9 learned.

Caller: “I don't know if you can tell me, my daughter is kind of messaging me.  Is there something going on at Lake Brantley High School?”

Dispatcher: “It was an unannounced code red drill.  It was just a drill.  It was just a practice drill for procedures for a code red.”

Caller: “OK, and you would have the security guards walking around on walkie-talkies walking through the hallways and helicopters and that stuff?”

Dispatcher: “Yeah, we got information there was a news helicopter there. There was some information at the start that it was an actual code red.”

Last week, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office suspended both announced and unannounced code red drills until further notice as the school district works on training school administrators on how to send out advance warning about a code red drill to the community.