NORFOLK, Va. — Maricel Oida-Soliven's daughter is a senior at Granby High School in Norfolk.
She said for the past two days, the halls at Granby High School have seemed empty. This comes just after the school went on lockdown for more than five hours on Tuesday.
That day, police officers were investigating a report that a student possibly entered the school with a gun following an incident that happened off-campus. Nobody was hurt.
Investigators detained several students, and said a 15-year-old teenager is facing charges for brandishing a gun.
The day after the commotion, Oida-Soliven said her daughter didn't run into many faces in school.
“She did say that it was like a desert town, they really like maybe 1/4th of the students in each of her classes were there," Oida-Soliven said. "So most of the people didn’t come back the next day. And she stated that it’s almost the same today, too.”
She said parents want more communication from school leaders in situations like that.
“I think the children are just a bit scared, and I don’t blame them, and maybe the parents are also scared to let them go back. Until we find out more word about what’s going on and what happened," Oida-Soliven said.
She said if there is a "next time," it would help if there's a clear plan.
“It might have been handled a little bit better as far as communicating to the parents and perhaps trying to find a way where, when it comes to something like this, where us as parents already know what the process is when they need to be released during a lockdown," Oida-Soliven said.
The 15-year-old who faces charges in this incident is being held at the Norfolk Detention Center.