GREENFIELD — Police responded to Greenfield High School for a potential threat made by phone shortly before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and quickly deemed the area safe.

“All students and staff are safe,” Greenfield School Department Superintendent Christine DeBarge wrote in a statement.

Greenfield High School went into lockdown “in an abundance of caution” in response to the call, DeBarge wrote. Greenfield Deputy Police Chief William Gordon estimated that this lockdown lasted between 45 minutes and one hour. Police blocked off all entrances to the campus while they investigated. Responding agencies included Greenfield and State Police.

Gordon said while there is a “standard procedure” for responding to threats, his department does not disclose details for safety reasons. Greenfield Police Sgt. Chris Rowell described the procedure as “fluid.”

“We have stuff that we are trained to do … but the situation as it starts can lead a different way,” Rowell said, “so there’s no set procedure that we follow every time.”

Rowell and other officers patrolled the school’s grounds for about half an hour, checking vehicles parked on the property and speaking with the individuals inside.

“We’re just going to make sure everyone’s safe,” Rowell said, explaining that police were just doing their “due diligence” to gauge the validity of the threat.

He added that Monday’s shooting at Michigan State University, which killed three people and wounded five others, brought heightened sensitivity to Tuesday’s threat at Greenfield High School.

The Greenfield School Department distributed a notice to families at around 11:50 a.m., stating “the situation has been resolved and no threat was identified. All are safe.” Greenfield Police Officer Marcus Paulin said the area was “clear” at noon and that police were dispersing.

Gordon said his department believes the threat to be connected to a string of hoax calls made to high schools across Massachusetts over the past two days, including at least four in western Massachusetts. Chicopee High School, Springfield High School and Great Barrington’s Monument Mountain High School received threats on Tuesday, while White Oak School in Westfield received one on Monday.

“The threats received were consistent in content with each other and those made to other schools yesterday,” Dave Procopio, Massachusetts State Police director of media communications, wrote in a statement.

Gordon called these hoax calls “dangerous” for both police officers and the broader community. Even when there is no legitimacy to a threat, there is inherent danger associated with having officers drive through traffic with lights, sirens and a high rate of speed, he noted. The greater danger, however, is how school staff and students have had their sense of school as a safe place stripped away, Gordon stressed.

“The bigger thing was the anxiety in the school with the teachers and the students,” he said, emphasizing that legitimate acts of violence in schools across the country have prompted legitimate fear that such crises could actually happen. “In reality, it’s the emotional toll it takes on the public.”

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.

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