‘Misunderstood texts' from Keller ISD teacher lead to active shooter scare

KELLER, Texas - A phone call from a teacher's spouse caused confusion that led officers to believe there was an active shooter at a Keller middle school. However, police didn’t find one.

The false alarm came just one day after an assignment in a drama class about an active shooter that left some parents concerned.

Keller police say about a dozen officers rushed to Indian Springs Middle School Wednesday morning after reports of an active shooter. When they got there, they heard students saying the pledge of allegiance and quickly realized it was a false alarm.

The original 911 call did not come from the school, but rather the spouse of a staff member off campus. Keller police say the spouse misunderstood a text message received from the staffer.

Neither the police nor school district would confirm whether the misunderstood text came from the teacher who is being investigated for allegedly holding an active shooter role-playing exercise during class on Tuesday.

Jeff Sprekelmeyer says he was forced to have a conversation with his 11-year-old daughter that he was ill prepared for.

“I wanted her to understand the actions she acted out are inappropriate, not that she's in trouble because of it,” he explained.

While in drama class on Tuesday, the sixth grader says she was given an uncomfortable improve assignment.

“She was given a strip of paper from the teacher that said the school is in lockdown, and there's an active shooter in the school,” Sprekelmeyer explained.

Kyla told her parents she played the role of the shooter and acted as if she wanted to get into the school to rob and shoot students but couldn't because the doors were locked. Dad was peeved.

“I just find that highly inappropriate,” he said.

The marine veteran was also troubled by the fact that his daughter's classmates had to guess the morbid scenario.

“My biggest problem with it was the fact that there's no after action,” he explained. “So it's not, ‘What did we learn from this? What were you feeling talking about the incident?’”

Sprekelmeyer contacted the district and says he spoke to assistant principal Wednesday morning in hopes that this incident will become a teachable moment for the teacher.

“I think it was irresponsible. I think there was bad judgement on the part of the teacher,” Sprekelmeyer said. “She was basically encouraged to act as a felon, and that's not what's I'm encouraging her to do.”

A Keller ISD spokeswoman would only say the incident is under investigation and said she could not comment any further since it is a personnel matter.