Gunshots rang out near Le Jardin Academy, forcing the school to go on lockdown. Turns out those shots were likely from predator control being done by the state.

But nobody warned the school about it.

We’re told that HPD wasn’t even told about it in advance so officers had to rush to the school. For some parents and students, this was quite a scare.

Around 10:15 Friday morning, staff and students heard four gunshots. They say it came from Kawainui Marsh, which is right next to the campus.

“Within minutes, we were able to get all our students, all our faculty and colleagues in classrooms, doors locked, shades drawn. Very early on we knew everybody was safe,” D.J. Condon, Head of School.

Shortly after that parent Sue Ferandin received what she describes as a nightmare text from her daughter.

“She said hi mom it’s Catie bug. My PE class is in the gym and we are on lockdown. I love you and I’m safe right now. They told us that we’re going to be here for a while. I love you so much,” said Ferandin, reading her daughter’s text.

The school called police who went to investigate. About a half hour later they were told that those shots were from some type of predator control being done at the marsh by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

So the school lifted the lockdown. School officials are still scratching their heads over why they were never told about it beforehand.

“The Marine Corps base is really close nearby. If we’re going to hear shots or unusual noise or if something’s happening in the marsh, we normally get informed ahead of time so that we know how to react,” said Condon.

There are about 800 students, but the head of the school says everything went smoothly. That’s because they do lockdown drills regularly.

The school says some students required some counseling after the incident. DLNR sent a statement saying, “It conducts predator control operations regularly… Although it’s not confirmed that the incident was caused by our actions, we will work with the police department to inform them of our daily control activities.”

The school emailed parents to notify them shortly after it happened. We’ll follow up to see if there’s any confirmation of the state’s involvement in todays incident, and to make sure more notice is given for future operations.