West students went through some early year drama on September 5, when the school was put under a secure lockdown due to an unexpected police alert. The police department was quick to inform the school about two students with what appeared to be handguns at the skate park around 11:40 a.m. After reporting this, officers were able to confiscate the supposed weapons, which were confirmed to be BB guns. The secure was lifted soon after at 12:16 p.m. Students were made aware about the details of the incident through email around 3:00 p.m.

Principal Becky Montour explained what a “secure” really entails.

“What a secure means is that there could be something dangerous happening outside of our school. What we don’t want is people leaving the building and stumbling across whatever might be happening in the neighborhood,” she said, “Only the police department or Officer Rasmussen can call a secure.”

A secure isn’t always called for the same reasons. Student Resource Officer [SRO] Tanner Rasmussen provided further details of what could be happening in order for the school to be placed in this precautionary state.

“Some examples would be: maybe a couple is in a heated argument near the apartments on Westfield. Maybe there’s a report of a weapon being involved,” he said, “We’d be put into a secure until law enforcement has that all taken care of and all weapons are located.”

Protocol in such an incident is a valid concern of students, families, and staff, according to Montour, but she stresses that there is no need for excessive fear because everything is handled carefully and safely by trained individuals.

“We’re always analyzing everything we do just to make sure of everything in the moment,” she said. “It’s always a judgement call and we want to make sure everyone’s safe.”

With serious situations like these, people can feel anxious about their safety, especially when they don't know exactly what’s going on. Misinformation could spread, but the facts of September 5 were delivered immediately from Montour to students and families to ease any concerns.

“I find it important to inform students and families directly after incidents because they deserve to know. They’re here in the building and families deserve to know what’s going on as well,” she said, “I hope students feel safer because they know what’s going on and how we handled it versus the unknown.”

Rasmussen shared a bit more about the reasoning behind this.

“The idea is to still any rumors. We don’t want fake information getting out and people saying this, and that,” he said. “Students should know we are safe and the purpose is to remain safe. I will be actively monitoring -what is going on.”

A similar situation took place last year, when a student had something that resembled a weapon but was actually a BB gun. Montour noticed an increase of these types of occurrences in Oshkosh.

“I see similarities with it looking like a real handgun,” she said. “I’ve heard there are more instances of this happening in the community, like more people are purchasing and playing with BB guns.”

According to Montour, administration constantly evaluates ways to do things differently in the future to ensure all students and staff are safe.

“If students left for lunch, how do you communicate with them to let them know not to come back or wait a little bit?” she said. “One thing that we’re talking about is finding a way to notify students who had been off campus, since this incident had started in the middle of 4A lunch.”

Students expressed mixed reactions about the sudden secure. Junior Hailey Gibbs wasn’t concerned about the situation, as she knows the school knows how to handle these instances with care.

“The only thing I was worried about was not being able to go out to get lunch,” she said. “But I think the school handled it very well. They gave out information pretty fast.”

by Samreen Chahal

Published October 6, 2025

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue I

Administrative, legal response to incident leaves Wildcats feeling secure