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Statement from Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega on Highland Park School District Lockdown

Waukegan, IL – At approximately 10:55 a.m., Two North Shore District 112 schools, Braeside Elementary School of 150 Pierce Rd, Highland Park, IL 60035 serving Precincts Moraine 222, 228, 229, 230, 231, and 232 and Red Oak Elementary School of 530 Red Oak Ln, Highland Park, IL 60035 serving Precincts Moraine 220, 221, 224, 225, 226, and 227 went into a lockdown status due to heavy police presence at Highland Park High School. The Highland Park Public Library at 494 Laurel Ln., Highland Park, IL, 60035 serving Precincts Moraine 217, 218, 219, and 223 has also gone into lockdown status.

This lockdown has subsequently halted all voter services at these locations at this time. At the point of the lockdown being lifted our office will petition the court to extend voting for the same length of time as the lockdown. All voters currently unable to vote at Braeside Elementary School, Red Oak Elementary School, or Highland Park Public Library may visit the Lake County Clerk’s Office at 18 N County St, Waukegan, IL 60085 to vote if they would prefer not to wait.

Any information regarding the police situation will be addressed by the City of Highland Park and North Shore School District 112. Please direct further questions or concerns to the North Shore School District 112 or Highland Park Police Department.

Please see the below statement from the Highland Park School District:

“Please be advised of a heavy police presence at Highland Park High School. HPHS has been placed on a lockdown due to a report of a student potentially in possession of a gun at school. There are no reported shots fired. Students and school staff should remain in place to facilitate the work of law enforcement to secure the building. The City will provide an update once the building has been secured.

All District 112 Schools are in Secure Building status right now - no one can enter or exit the schools in District 112 until further notice. Students are safe in their classrooms.

Voting at Red Oak and Braeside is being delayed due to the Secure Building status.

We are in direct communication with law enforcement. More information will be forthcoming from D112, the County Clerk and the City.”

More here.

* Hopefully, things are a lot calmer near you. What’s going on out there?

*** UPDATE *** Over…

HPHS secured, lockdown has ended. https://t.co/ZukHJgr0Dk pic.twitter.com/Wi5htSWk51

— Bob Morgan (@RepBobMorgan) April 4, 2023

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:01 pm

Comments

Not to change the subject but in these times it would make sense for any and all types of election days, including Local and Primary, be school and state holidays in addition to the General.

Schools could have waited until this week, to cover both today’s election and Easter week, to have their spring break rather than March.

Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:08 pm
First, I hope everyone is safe.

This really illustrates the need to take an in-service day or just a holiday on election days. The security issues are simply too great to have large numbers of the public in schools on top of the day to day issues schools have.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:09 pm
Any golf course sightings of Tom Cross?

Comment by Anyone Remember Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:29 pm
Drove by my polling place multiple pcts, there were about 5 cars when I went by, none when I came back.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:29 pm
FYI, lockdown ended at Highland Park High School. (Two students arrested. So sad.)

Comment by Torco Sign Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:39 pm
After what happened on July 4th, I cannot even imagine how traumatizing this is for the kiddos at these schools and their parents.

Comment by SpiDem Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:40 pm
===Any golf course sightings of Tom Cross?===

He was 3 groups ahead of me this morning.

I waved, Cross totally ignored me.

“Afternoon” numbers…

Over 150 in a precinct I visited said it’s rolling “average”

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:40 pm
holding you close, Highland Park

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:48 pm
Reddevil1, I voted at Washington Park at noon (P54), and the total was up to 206. Hope that helps to restore your faith in humanity. FWIW, when I was an election judge in the 2020 general, we did have a fairly decent turnout at the pavilion in the late afternoon. But as others have said, vote by mail is gaining popularity.

Comment by Dysfunction Junction Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:48 pm
This community has been through so much over the past year. The ripple effects of even a smaller incident like this, where no one was hurt, are still massive. I hope that the proper supports are provided for students and parents who might be retraumatized from this incident, and that Highland Park sees a calm time ahead without any more of these issues.

Comment by CornAl DoGooder Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:52 pm
My goodness, my heart goes out to Highland Park, all of it, students included

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 12:54 pm
===I cannot even imagine how traumatizing this is for the kiddos at these schools and their parents. ===

Extremely traumatizing. I vomited, and it wasn’t even my kids’ school. (We have friends there.)

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:05 pm
Still super light in the Woodside (Springfield) precinct I’m working. There were more mail-on that we’ve had in person … which is only 9. But since it’s not the city, there are just some park and school. districts on the ballot.

The other 2 precincts here, which are in Capitol, have been closer to normal turnout.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:14 pm
Just voted in 41st Ward. #42 in my precinct. Only voter in a 4 precinct location. This is Vallas territory. Low turnout here with bad weather coming could be a boost for Johnson’s chances.

Never have I felt more depressed about my vote after casting my ballot.

Comment by Original Rambler Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:16 pm
Also the HP lockdowns make the man at my nearby voting precinct screaming about Democrats coming to steal his guns a lot more upsetting in retrospect.

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:19 pm
To the update:

“there is no credible reason to continue the lockdown”

This is what I was concerned with when I first read it, but didn’t want to speculate until more came out.

“Five students have been taken into custody”

Charge their parents for the crimes their child committed. Lets see if “it was just a joke” is still funny to them then.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:22 pm
I agree with having all election days be school holidays, or in the alternative, quit using schools as polling locations.
Southern Sangamon County
Two precincts
56 total votes as of 1:30 pm

Comment by Teacher Lady Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:31 pm
Just had some hail, some the size of golf balls. If that is just a prelim to tonight’s weather, it’s gonna be interesting.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:39 pm
The polls have not closed. Bad weather is coming this afternoon. Nonetheless, the talking heads at Manny’s Delicatessen (remote radio broadcast) are calling it for Vallas in advance.

What gives here? The voting is not over yet.

Comment by Gravitas Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:40 pm
=Schools could have waited until this week, to cover both today’s election and Easter week, to have their spring break rather than March.=

Or they could take the activity of voting out of schools. Especially given the current political/social environment.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:45 pm
There’s been some buzz that turnout is up among young voters in Chicago, which would be big for Brandon. But the Brd of Elections just tweeted out these turnout numbers by age group:

18 -24: 10,796 ballots cast – 2.96%
25-34: 51,746 ballots cast – 14.19%
35-44: 58,410 ballots cast – 16.02%
45-54: 56,421 ballots cast – 15.48%
55-64: 67,657 ballots cast – 18.56%
65-74: 68,948 ballots cast – 18.91%

That’s seems fairly consistent with the Feb 28 turnout. Is there another data point out there I’m missing?

Comment by Roman Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:46 pm
Whoops, Anon. @ 1:47 is me.

Comment by Northsider Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:48 pm
Ballot 142 at my 32nd Ward precinct right at noon (Vallas carried it 47% to 26% for Johnson with MLL back at 11%). No Vallas signs, couple Johnson signs, pretty quiet. Poll workers said it was a little busy in morning, my corner of the ward usually has short lines to vote from 5-7pm but between VBM and the weather not sure they will today.

The local alderman/committeeman endorsed Lightfoot in primary and unless I missed it didn’t endorse anyone in runoff even though ward went 46%-25% for Vallas over Johnson overall. Never got a sense there was a shadow Vallas ground game picking up slack so curious to see if turnout ends up being as high in runoff as it was in primary.

Comment by ChicagoBars Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:55 pm
–Or they could take the activity of voting out of schools.–

This was the reasoning many years ago why many voting locations near me were moved to churches. Granted, nothing was going on at the time that would have required a move of the polling location - other than the churches wanting to try to bring more people into them in any way possible.

Thankfully, early voting locations exist all around my county now and I don’t have to set foot in a church which has and still is participating in covering up child abuse by its staff and followers - a church which is currently my ‘regular’ polling location.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:57 pm
Adding.

Found the turnout by age for Feb 28:

18 -24: 6,609 ballots cast – 2.35%
25-34: 34,402 ballots cast – 12.25%
35-44: 41,785 ballots cast – 14.88%
45-54: 42,030 ballots cast – 14.96%
55-64: 54,866 ballots cast – 19.53%
65-74: 57,839 ballots cast – 20.59%
75+: 43,283 ballots cast – 15.41%

Does look like an increase in young voters turning out…certainly enough to matter in a close election.

Comment by Roman Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 1:59 pm
Went to vote in Normal at about 1:30 nobody was there finally one voter showed up when I was finishing. My guess is very low turnout. It would probably be even lower except Unit 5 tax increase on the ballot. Remains to be seen how that will go. Judging from yard signs I think property taxes are going up.

Comment by clec dcn Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 2:34 pm
54% plus of all ballots cast are 45 and over.

That’s a lotta ballots in a Vallas wheelhouse?

Now cross reference them by wards… I mean…

That’s why even speculating with “known knowns”, let’s see how this plays out in a post mortem that might, yet again, be “there’s one map in Chicago”?

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 2:50 pm
===54% plus of all ballots cast are 45 and over. That’s a lotta ballots in a Vallas wheelhouse?===

I died a little inside when I realized I have aged into “Vallas’s wheelhouse.”

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 3:15 pm
I so helpfully just received a text message purporting to be from Board President Toni Precwinkle asking me to listen to a message about voting for Brandon Johnson. I voted on Sunday.

Comment by 32nd Ward Roscoe Village Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 3:21 pm
Just had a Johnson runner at my door, which is strange because I told their previous canvassers I was a Vallas voter. They must be running everybody in my area based on…something.

Or maybe they have more precinct workers than they needed?

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 4:02 pm
410+ cards cast at Capital 17 & 44 in Springfield.

Comment by Barton Tuesday, Apr 4, 23 @ 6:59 pm