Decatur Central High School lifted its lockdown about noon.
"During third period today, a teacher found an unloaded gun in a student's backpack," read a statement from Robin Gregory, community relations specialist for the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township. "The unloaded handgun was immediately handed over to administration."
The district said it put its safety protocols in place and that students and staff were not in any position to be hurt.
School officials said the student who brought the gun to school was taken into police custody.
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The Pollyanna Approach
5 hours ago
8 comments:
Nice that we....as parents....know about something like this happening by watching the news media. I heard it on WXNT radio this morning. Tried calling the school and all i got was an answering machine. Never once could I get a human to answer the phone. I called 856-5288. No answer (by a human). "press 0 for the operator". Well, that didn't work. Bottom line is that thankfully my daughter DID text message me and said all was OK. Oh, I jumped on the MSD website and nothing was on that either. Here's the bottom line....these things happen in todays world. Hey Decatur...you need a procedure in place to obviously FIRST protect the kids. Then, you need some kind of "phone tree" or email alert or instant website update with information! It was a scary 45 minutes for me before I heard from my daughter and hearing this on the radio! Get with it!
Anon 1:52 p.m.
Many, many school districts have technology in place that alerts all parents immediately. Sad Decatur continues to fall farther and farther behind. No excuse for this type of inconsideration.
If you heard it on the news, then you must of also heard that it was unloaded weapon and that everything was fine. I am guessing you couldn't get through because so many parents were calling to check on their children, rightfully so I will say. Decatur is a large district. It would be next to impossible to notify every parent before it leaks to the media. You are right, they should have an email system that will notify parents in extreme circumstances. I think in this case it would have caused wide spread panic and that would not have been at all helpful. Maybe they do have something set up...but administration didn't feel it was warranted to put it into place. I think the blame lies with the student and possibly his parents.
anon 7:40 - you are way off base. If the school felt the situation was serious enough for a lock-down, the it was serious enough to get in touch with the parents. There are myriad ways to do so effectively and calmly. If you can't write a proper script - then the district should buy it from a district that respects parents.
Just because you disagree doesn't mean I am off base or wrong. It just means we disagree. It sounded to me like the situation was over as soon as it began. I don't even understand why they chose to lock down the school or what purpose it served. It was a serious situation that was handled by school officials and police officers. I am sure they did what they was warranted and best. The last thing they needed was mass chaos and hundreds of worried parents up there. Just stating my opinion. Everyone has a right to one. :-). I respect the fact that there are concerned parents in this situation. I just think it was handled appropriately. That's all.
Since the DID lock down the school, they owed it to the parents to provide real time information. The technology is easily available.
The district is also off base to assume that accurate information cannot be utilized by the parents.
We (the parents) were notified of the situation via the phone message system soon after this all took place. I believe the first interest of the school was to ensure things were handled at the school to protect our children and then secondly to notify us of what went on. If you were not home to receive that message, then you should update your records so that you receive the message via a cell phone or work number. I also feel that things were handled appropriately and personally feel like some people look for anything and everything to blame on the school system.
The parents have been in denial about this kid for YEARS. We're all damn lucky he (or a buddy)didn't bring bulets also. I always do a double-take when they want to cut social workers who have to deal with people who can't or won't be parents.
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