Miscommunication Causes Falls Church Schools to Take Security Measures

If you happened to see police activity around Falls Church Friday afternoon or read something on Twitter about police patrols around two elementary schools, it all started due to some miscommunication.

A quick conversation between a parent and a teacher Friday led to the police activity and city schools taking security measures in Falls Church, according to a city spokeswoman.

Police went out on patrol looking for a suspicious person while schools took security measures for at least an hour Friday afternoon. It turns out there was no suspicious person in the area.

"We were the victim of rumors spreading and people not understanding what was going on," said city spokeswoman Susan Finarelli.

Finarelli explained that it all started Friday after a parent picked up a child at Thomas Jefferson Elementary. "A teacher was waving goodbye and said 'Hey, have a good weekend,' and told the parent about the Tornado Watch that was out for the area. The parent misunderstood and thought the teacher meant there was a security warning at the school.  

The parent drove off from the school and called a cousin who also has a child in a Falls Church elementary school. "They took it to mean a school security warning was out, about a gunman," said Finarelli.

The cousin soon called their own child's school, Mount Daniel Elementary, in Falls Church to ask about the school "warning." Officials there then contacted police.

"The police did what they needed to do," said Finarelli. They patrolled the area around the schools. Eventually officials figured out there had been miscommunication between the teacher and the parents.

"Luckily, it was the best circumstances possible," Finarelli said, "just misinformation."

See the timeline of tweets sent out Friday by FCCPS in the Storify document by using the scrollbar on the righthand side.