New security upgrades prove useful during evacuation
During a rare November snow storm, all of the staff and students evacuate to the S.A.E.S.A site as the bomb task force team checks the junior/senior high building. Students are held on buses until family members sign them out or until the bus takes them home.
Near 650 staff and students were rushed out of the building the Monday morning of November 11.
Principal Jeff Trapp made an emergency announcement of an immediate evacuation with no extra information as to why.
Students who drove were allowed to go to their personal vehicles, the rest of the student body boarded buses that quickly drove to the Stockbridge Area Emergency Services Authority (SAESA).
A bomb threat written on a girls bathroom stall was notified to the office at 8:45 a.m., causing school administration to take action immediately.
“We had to take it serious and react the best way possible, and we did,” Trapp said of the incident. Administrators did not have much time to react or organize anything.
Diane Evans, a junior, said she felt the administration did a decent job on getting everyone out of the building so quickly. The school was evacuated within about 5 minutes.
All guardians of students were called to be informed of where their children were and what had happened.
The Michigan State K-9 unit was quickly called to check the high school. The building got an all clear, no bombs found. The suspect was captured by the end of Monday: Students were safely taken home by buses or picked up by family members.
The suspect was taken to Ingham County Circuit Court on November 12 at 1:30pm for a preliminary hearing-juv. On November 21 at 10:30am, the suspect was taken back to court for a pretrial-juv. Their next court hearing is December 18 for a dispositional hearing.
While the high school administration cannot prevent written false threats, it can help prevent real threats. The new security upgrades have not stopped threats, but they can stop those threats from entering the school.
Recent enhancements include increased time of police officer Kevin Marshall patrols the building, in and out throughout the day.
To tell if students leave school, new door locks and alarms were installed.
Hannah Lockhart, a junior, thinks the new upgrades are good, but forceful on students to stay in the school.
After the school day starts, the main entrance doors are locked. The doors have a buzz in to the left of the doors. A buzzing sound is sent to the office with a live camera feed.
“They’re trying harder to keep us safe in school,” Lockhart said.
