By John W. Peeler
Managing Editor
Wetumpka Middle School was placed on lock down for about three hours Friday what Elmore County Superintendent of Education Andre’ L. Harrison termed as a “perceived threat.”
WMS went on lockdown at approximately 10 a.m., he said, and at 1 p.m. the lockdown was lifted.
“We had a perceived threat serious enough to place the school in lockdown for the safety of our students and staff members,” he said. “We contacted local law enforcement and followed procedure, as we should.
Harrison said that although that was all the information he could currently release, he would be briefing parents at a later time through online media and other forms of communication.
“We were here with (students and staff) … they were able to eat lunch and continue with instruction as much as they possibly could,” he said. “Restrooms … everything was perfectly safe inside the building. Our local law enforcement kept us informed and we used social media to inform the parents, because even though our kids are safe, but when you see a bunch of police cars in front of this building with over 900 kids in school, as a parent myself, … the frightening picture of that and not knowing what is going on … you want to get your child … we followed procedure.”
Harrison said the kids did an “awesome job” even though they saw police officers in the building with assault rifles and the kids knew the officers were there to keep them safe.
“From a safety standpoint, sometimes parents don’t understand that once the law enforcement comes on campus they are in charge,” he said.
Now the perceived threat is gone, Harrison said he would continue to update parents.
“From here, I am going to update the parents and give them a little more detail information,” he said. “I have talked to local law enforcement about what I can say. So, I am going to come back and use messenger and different types of social media to let the parents know kind of what we were facing and thank them for all their support and patience.
Although the remainder of the school day went on as normal, Harrison said if parents came to get their children the school would release the child under strict supervision.
