A fatal shooting at a neighboring school in Richfield led to the lockdown of Blessed Trinity Catholic School’s Penn Campus Feb. 1. About 100 pre-K through third-grade students were moved to the school’s Nicollet Campus at 1:30 p.m., where they stayed until dismissal just after 2 p.m., said Principal Patrick O’Keefe, who noted that no one at his school was harmed in the incident.

Around noon, two students were shot at South Education Center, next door to Blessed Trinity’s Penn Campus at 7540 Penn Ave. S. O’Keefe said several staff members witnessed the incident and called 911. One of the students died and the other was critically injured. Police from several municipalities responded, and advised leaders at both schools to enter into lockdown, which they did. O’Keefe then chose to move students from the Penn Campus to the Nicollet Campus to reduce traffic at the end of the school day that might interfere with law enforcement personnel at South Education Center, he said.

His school followed existing protocol for such situations, and he said all went smoothly. Once all students were together at the Nicollet Campus, they gathered at St. Peter church to pray for those impacted by the tragedy.

“Our kids were exceptional,” O’Keefe said. “They handled it unbelievably well. And, they understood both why we’ve done this in the past and why we were doing it today. And, they stopped to pray because that’s what we can do at that moment.”

The Nicollet Campus also dealt with an anonymous bomb threat Jan. 18 to its next-door neighbor, Academy of Holy Angels. Some collaborative classes between the two schools were canceled, but Blessed Trinity remained in session that day.

“It is sad that our kids have to learn” emergency protocols for these situations, O’Keefe said. “But it is remarkable how resilient (they are), and when you give them what is honest and right for their age, they do well with it.”