Explosive device found on playground at Brownell Elementary

Posted By: Sarah Fili

sfili@klkntv.com

"It’s very upsetting because I will not send my 4 year old daughter here."

Mother of four Stacy Evans was shocked to learn an explosive was found at Brownell Elementary School Tuesday, just two blocks from where she lives.

A staff member discovered it near the playground near 60th and Aylesworth, while walking the grounds. Unsure of what it was, the staff member brought it inside. After realizing it could be dangerous, they called 911 and evacuated part of the school.

"So the office staff left the office, left the rest of the kids in the school pretty much day as usual and then waited for LFR and LPD to respond,” Joe Wright, the Lincoln Public School Safety Director, said.

Lincoln Fire Investigators say the homemade explosive had a short wick and a blast radius of about five feet. School staff say they aren’t sure how long it had been there.

"No one got hurt, kids are safe, staff called 911. Expert response from fire and police, and as I said, trying to turn into a learning situation and move on,” Wright said.

They say they’ll use the incident as a teaching tool and look to other school districts for ways to improve their response.

"We’ll research what other schools have done if anything has ever come of an incident like this that sounds great to us or has been reported to be really productive or helps with our training efforts or anything we do with security then we’ll add that," Wright said.

For Evans, the concern isn’t new. She pulled one of her children from Brownell after she says her daughter got a threatening note from a student.

“There’s been many issues that have gone on here and it’s just not a safe school,” Evans said.

Tuesday was an early release day, the explosive was found less than an hour before school let out. Some parents weren’t notified by the school prior to pickup. The LPS safety director says they were focused on keeping students safe before getting a message out to parents.