July 30, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Two DeKalb County Schools were briefly on lock down Monday but there was nothing to be alarmed about. No students were there, and it was only a drill!
Members of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, Smithville Police Department, and Special Agent Jimmy Puckett of the Tennessee Department of Safety Homeland Security conducted the lock down exercises at Smithville Elementary School and Northside Elementary School to make sure all interior doors were secured and teachers on site were safe.
The DeKalb County School District, in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, conduct these safety protocols periodically at the schools to prepare for any possible future outside threat.
It’s called “Intruder drills” and it is something the state requires local districts to conduct at least once a year. Similar drills will be held in the coming days at DCHS, DeKalb Middle School, and DeKalb West School and in some cases, students will be present when the lock down exercises are conducted. The Alexandria Police Department is expected to participate with the sheriff’s department at DeKalb West School.
“These drills are among the state mandated trainings we have to conduct for safety,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps. “We call it our lock down drill. It’s an opportunity for officers within the city and county to walk through our school buildings to make sure teachers are inside their locked down areas. These drills are important for us to prepare should anything unexpected ever happen. The drills today were done without students here, but we plan to do some next week with students in the building,” said Director Cripps.
According to Joey Reeder, safety director for the DeKalb County School District, the school conducting the “intruder drill” is locked down and local law enforcement officers are called upon to make a walkthrough of the school to make sure all doors are locked. That means greater fortification of schools to make it more difficult for an intruder to enter them.
“Basically, an intruder drill is where our entire school building is locked down and wherever you are at you get in the closest room,” Reeder explained. “If it happens during a normal school day when kids are in class, we lock the doors, get the kids away from the windows and doors, and try to be as quiet as we can. It’s sad we are at this place in the world that we have to keep our doors locked at all times but under state law all exterior doors have to be locked and we encourage teachers to keep the interior doors locked also. It causes some aggravation but its another layer of safety. That’s what we are about is trying to keep as many kids, faculty, and staff as safe as we can.”
The intruder drills serve a twofold purpose, according to Reeder, by putting into practice the school safety protocols and by making local law enforcement officers more familiar with the layout of the schools and they are welcome to stop in anytime.
“Our feeling on these drills is that not only does it help our schools but it’s a great deal of help to our law enforcement. Anytime we can get law enforcement in our buildings, walking around we believe that is a good thing and they are more than welcome to come. I don’t care what department they are with, Smithville, Alexandria, Sheriff’s Department, they are welcome in any of our buildings at any time,” said Reeder. “We have a lot of officers who just stop and walk through the building, and we appreciate that. Anytime you go by and see a police car outside a school, we believe it serves as somewhat of a deterrent. Fortunately for years we have always had a tremendous relationship with all the law enforcement agencies, and you can tell that by the crowd of them we had here today,” Reeder said.