Mar 31, 2023 4 min read

A viral TikTok video posted by a former Canon-McMillan student expressing concern about a March 9 incident that caused South Central Elementary School to briefly go into lockdown resulted in several calls from parents to the Canonsburg Police Department and the school district.

The Observer-Reporter reported March 11 that the school went into lockdown after a woman was seen carrying a rifle in a backpack in close proximity of the school building.

But many parents said they weren’t aware of the incident and specific details until viewing the TikTok post on Thursday.

Canonsburg Police Chief Alex Coghill said he spent much of Thursday responding to phone calls regarding the social media post.

He said the woman was experiencing a mental health crisis and that police determined she posed no threat to the elementary school. She will not face charges.

“The most important thing is there is no connection to the school except she happened to live close,” said Coghill. “She did not walk by or past school, she did not pose a threat. She was walking away from the school, toward town.”

A police report provided details of the March 9 incident.

At about 3:20 p.m. that day, police responded to a 911 call about a woman who was spotted wearing a camouflage jacket with the hood up and red ear muff protection, and carrying a gun slung across her back, poking out from a backpack.

The School Resource Officer and parent who was picking up her child saw the woman at Speer Street and South Jefferson Avenue, adjacent to the school playground.

The school went into lockdown until police apprehended the woman, which delayed school dismissal.

The school district issued an email to parents that there was an incident that was not school-related that resulted in the school going into a brief lockdown “out of an abundance of caution.” The email asked parents to reach out with any questions.

But the letter didn’t mention that a weapon was involved, something that prompted concern from one father, who reached out to Canonsburg police and the school district for additional information, and wrote a letter to the district asking for more transparency.

“If there was a person within a hundred feet of your kid’s school with a gun, wouldn’t you want to know about it?” he said Thursday.

Coghill said the woman did not break any gun laws, including a federal law that prohibits a person from carrying a loaded firearm within 1,000 feet of a school because the shotgun – a scoped 12-gauge Remington 870 pump shotgun – was not loaded.

North Strabane Township police officers also responded to the incident.

According to the report, the woman acted erratically and told police she was meeting a male at the end of the road for ammunition for the rifle, which she called a “sniper rifle.” Police confiscated the weapon, escorted her home, and notified Washington County Mental Health Services.

“We were satisfied there was no threat to the school and no state laws were broken, and our main concern was getting her mental health help,” said Coghill. “The first thing we wanted to know is if there was any threat to the school and we were 100% satisfied that day that there was no connection to the school.”

The woman was taken to a medical facility for a psychiatric evaluation.

Coghill said the woman’s shotgun will not be returned to her.

Canon-McMillan spokesperson Morgan Northy said the district did not include additional details because it was a police matter that did not directly involve the school.

Said Coghill, “In defense of the school district, the issue was not school-related.”

The father said he believed the incident was handled well, but wanted more information.

“My stance the whole time is the police did a great job, the school did a great job, and I understand personal details cannot be shared, but to give no mention that the person had a weapon, or how close they were to the school, I just think people should know,” he said.