Friday, 10:55 AM
Boston schools reopen after precautionary lockdowns
By Globe Staff
Six Boston schools were locked down briefly this afternoon because police were searching for a robbery suspect in the area, school officials said.
Police received a report of a robbery at about noon. The victim said he had been robbed on River Street in Hyde Park and then kidnapped in a van. The van crashed at Seaver and Walnut in Roxbury, and the robbery victim escaped, calling police.
The police felt it would be safer for students to be kept in their classrooms while they hunted for the suspect, a police spokeswoman said.
Jonathan Palumbo, a spokesman for the Boston public schools, said six schools -- the Ellis, Lewis, Higginson, Hernandez, and Trotter schools, as well as Boston Latin Academy -- were locked down.
He emphasized that a lockdown simply means that no one is allowed in or out and that normal activities continue inside the schools.
The lockdowns began at 12:30 p.m. and police gave the schools an all clear by 1:45, he said.
"Unfortunately, it's not unusual," he said.
