Oceanside High School was placed on a shortlived, “modified lockdown” Friday morning, school officials said, after an unknown man was reportedly seen jumping over a fence onto the campus.
Officers with the Oceanside Police Department (OPD) were called to the school to help investigate. As officers searched the campus on the ground, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) also helped by using its helicopter to sweep the campus by air.
At 8:10 a.m., the Oceanside Unified School District said every student and staffer on the high school campus -- located at 1 Pirates Cove Way in the North County -- was safe.
By 8:40 a.m., the OPD confirmed officers had cleared the campus and found nothing suspicious. School officials then lifted the lockdown, and classes resumed as normal.
OPD investigators said a witness driving past the school around 7:45 a.m. reported seeing a man jump over a fence onto the campus carrying some type of object in his hand. Concerned, police said the witness thought the object could have been some kind of weapon.
The witness called a family member who reported the incident to school staff, the OPD said.
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Police spoke with the witness, but the witness had no further details to provide to investigators. The OPD was not able to confirm is a weapon was actually seen.
Oceanside police said they did not locate the person reported by the witness and "there was no evidence a person with a weapon was ever on the campus."
Officials said the lockdown was issued out of an abundance of caution.
