Bruins were trapped in their classrooms for their own safety during a recent bank robbery.

On January 26, students were put under a “shelter in place” during their second period class and held 20 minutes into third period because of a crime committed about a mile away at Tri Counties Bank on Combie Road.

According to Vice Principal Cathy Peterson, a “shelter in place” is a safety precaution when there is a known threat in the area. Teachers must lock the doors of their classrooms and wait for an all-clear before releasing students.

Students had mixed reactions to the event.

“[The students] were calm, laughing about it actually,” said Holly Shepard, a freshman.

“Most of the kids in the class took it as a joke, kept calm, and continued working,” said Jacob Rivett, a junior.

Teachers thought the students were well behaved.

“People got a little distracted,” said Jim Nieto, a history teacher. “They were concerned about what was going on… They had heard there was a robbery. The kids, for the most part, were cooperative.”

Students expressed how the situation impacted their classrooms.

“It didn’t affect anything,” said Shepard. “We just kept going.”

“I was in A-Push (AP U.S. History) and we were writing an essay and he just locked us indoors,” said Rivett.

“It affected third period [by cutting it] short by half the time,” said Cody Delgado, a senior. “So, us as seniors don’t have as much time to work on our senior projects. But, for second period, we got to finish our projects we had been working on for two weeks.”

Josie Andrews, the school librarian, had positive thoughts on how the situation was handled.

“I think it was handled really well and was really smooth,” she said. “The directions were clear. It happened pretty quickly.”