Durham's Riverside High has had 14 lockdowns since last year; district says tips may come from one source

As of 1:50 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026

Riverside High School in Durham, North Carolina, has gone into lockdown 14 times since July 2025, including three times last week, after anonymous tips reporting a person with a gun on or near campus, Durham Public Schools administrators said at a town hall Thursday night.

The district said it believes the tip line may be being misused. All the tips that led to lockdowns came from similar IP addresses, meaning they could be coming from the same person, administrators said, according to WRAL. District safety director Mclloyd Bynum said the tips appear to come from a "consistent" IP address and that the sender does not respond to follow-up questions from a human operator, The 9th Street Journal reported.

Federal help and possible charges

The district is working with law enforcement, including the FBI, to identify the source of the tips, administrators said. Bynum said several subpoenas are in progress.

Whoever is found responsible could face up to 20 felony charges, district officials said. Durham Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest, according to WRAL.

The district has received 238 tips through its two anonymous tip lines since the start of the 2025-26 school year, and 5.8% of them resulted in lockdowns at Riverside, administrators said. Most tips to the lines concern self-harm, suicidal thoughts and bullying, and the system has saved lives, said Laverne Mattocks-Perry, the district's senior executive director of student support services. State law requires secondary public schools to run an anonymous tip line.

"It's taking an emotional toll"

About 200 parents, students and staff attended Thursday's town hall in the school's media center, The 9th Street Journal reported. Students told reporters the repeated lockdowns have started to feel routine, and some said classmates no longer take them seriously. Lockdowns can be lifted only by law enforcement, and students said they can last up to 45 minutes.

"This is definitely impacting students' academics. It's taking an emotional toll on students and staff," Superintendent Anthony Lewis said, according to WRAL. "The one time we don't respond could be traumatic," he said.

"I'm willing to do anything and everything I can to ensure that this stops," Lewis told the town hall. Principal Gloria Woods-Weeks said the school is working to set aside time in the day for students to make up missed work and tests and to meet with counselors.

No arrest had been announced as of this article's time stamp.

Why it matters

Repeated false alarms disrupt learning and risk making students and staff less likely to react quickly in a real emergency, a concern district leaders raised themselves.