Photo by Paul Aiken

SWAT and Boulder Police vehicles outside Casey Middle School on Tuesday January 6, 2008. Photo by Paul Aiken / The Camera

Children jumping rope and tossing Frisbees during recess Tuesday at a Boulder Catholic school froze — some screeched — at the sound of explosions from a SWAT and bomb squad exercise at neighboring Casey Middle School.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School hadn’t been warned about the practice drills at its now-vacant neighbor, and the communication gaffe has prompted the Boulder Valley School District to add the private school to its e-mail alert list.

“We were not notified,” Maggie Cuddy, administrative assistant for Sacred Heart, told the Camera after calling the newspaper to find out what was going on. “It is kind of imperative that we, as a neighbor, know that there are going to be loud noises and explosions.”

Cuddy heard more explosions while talking on the phone to a reporter.

“A bomb just went off, and my kids are at recess,” she said. “I have kids outside screaming right now. They are freaking out.”

At least four parents came to the school’s main office during the lunch hour asking about the SWAT vans and explosions, Cuddy said.

Laura Studebaker, a teacher’s aide at Sacred Heart, said students ran to her after the explosions and said, “I saw on TV that there’s a war going on.”

“There was dead silence,” Studebaker said of the children’s immediate reaction. “It was the most quiet I’ve ever heard the children.”

David McGovern, 7, said he was playing with a friend when he heard the “big babooms.” He ran to his mother, who’s a teacher at the school.

“I just heard a big explosion, like a cannon ball shooting from a huge cannon,” said David, a second-grader at Sacred Heart.

Boulder Valley spokesman Briggs Gamblin said he’s now added Sacred Heart to his notification e-mail lists and plans to keep the school informed of district happenings in the future.

Previously, Gamblin said, Casey’s principal was in charge of telling Sacred Heart about lockdowns, mountain lion sightings and other traffic- and building-related issues. But Sacred Heart officials said that didn’t always happen: They weren’t told until hours later about a recent lockdown at Casey; another time they weren’t warned about a mountain lion sighting in the area.

Gamblin said some of the responsibility to warn Sacred Heart lies with Boulder police. But with Casey students and faculty moved across town to Platt Middle School to make way for an 18-month and $31 million construction project, Gamblin said his office will be extra vigilant to keep the Catholic school informed.

“This is a wake-up call to make sure that we remember to do that,” he said.

Tuesday’s drill was a training exercise in the empty school involving SWAT and bomb squad officers. Although Boulder police didn’t release specifics about the exercise because it involved secret tactics, live ammunition and explosives, spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said the drill allowed officers valuable training in case of a real school emergency.

In hindsight, Huntley said, the department could have done a better job notifying neighbors — including Sacred Heart and a nearby preschool.

“There are notification things we could have done that we’ll learn from in the future,” Huntley said, adding that they did release information through the district and the media.

“But not everyone is watching TV at a certain time or reading the paper,” she said Tuesday. “We learned that this morning.”

While watching her kindergarten-aged son play at Sacred Heart on Tuesday, Patty Ferreira said she wants the school district and police to do a better job of warning its neighbors about events that might impact them.

“I think it’s wrong for them not to notify us,” she said. “Hello?”