LEWISTON – A police standoff involving an alleged sex offender turned two hours of skating fun into a longer – and hungrier – outing for 465 middle school honor students Tuesday.
The Lewiston Middle School students had gone to the Colisee for ice skating as a reward for their scholarship as well as their good discipline, said Scott Walker, the school’s assistant principal.
But as they were about to finish up the outing and head back to the school, police were surrounding Edward Fitzherbert, 61, as he sat in a parked van near St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center holding a gun to his head.
Cops ordered the nearby school locked down as a precaution. About 260 students still at the school were confined to their rooms, and the 465 – along with about 30 teachers and ed techs – at the Colisee were told to stay there until the situation was resolved.
At about 11:30 Tuesday morning, as the police drama was still taking place, the students at the Colisee had finished skating and most were sitting in the seats surrounding the rink chatting with each other, calling family members on their cell phones or playing with games or ring tones on the devices.
Walker said the students had been told there was “a police incident of some kind” near the school and they’d be staying at the Colisee for a while.
Pamylah Brown, a seventh-grade English language arts teacher, said the students were doing well, but she noted that lunch time was nearing.
“We’re getting hungry,” said Michelle Caron, an eighth-grader who was spending the time talking with classmates Keagan Cote and Nimal Eames-Scott. The trio said they understood that once they could return to the school they’d be served lunch.
Minutes later, School Superintendent Leon Levesque arrived at the Colisee to tell teachers that preparations were being made to have lunches brought to the building from the school’s cafeteria.
The message that food was on the way brought a round a cheers. A second volley of cheers followed when the kids were told Colisee would soon be offering some music to fill the cavernous building’s void.
Not long after that, Fitzherbert surrendered to police. The kids at the Colisee were cleared to return to their school.
Lunch was waiting for them when they got there, Levesque said later.
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