DeKalb Firefighters Graduate from Training Academy

December 13, 2021
By:

Seven members of the DeKalb County Fire Department graduated from the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Training Academy’s Live Burn Firefighter I class that was held Saturday and Sunday, December 4 and 5.

Completing the course locally were William Odom, Matthew Olson, Robert Sutton, Christina Hovey, Heather Lader, Phillip Coats, and Anthony Scott.

“This 16-hour course requires students to demonstrate skills needed to extinguish a passenger vehicle fire attack, exterior Class A fire attack, interior structure fire attack, commercial buildings and ground cover fire attack, said Captain Brian Williams. “We are extremely proud of these recent graduates. Today, our department stands better prepared to respond to emergencies because of the high standards for training we set for our firefighters,” he said.

December 13, 2021
By: Bill Conger

DeKalb West School has announced its Students of the Month for December. Named to the honor are Calla Vickers, Pre-K, Dylan Bates, Kindergarten, Claire Cripps, 1st grade, Lileigh Smith, 2nd grade, Kyson Gray, 3rd grade, Zane Griffith, 4th grade, Kate Pistole, 5th grade, Averly Moss, 6th grade, Raegan Murphy, 7th grade, and Carter Vickers, 8th grade. Teachers choose students for the award based on criteria including academic and good character.

Picture front row left to right are Calla Vickers, Kyson Gray, Claire Cripps, Dylan Bates, and Zane Griffith. Back row left to right are Assistant Principal Joey Agee, Carter Vickers, Averly Moss, Raegan Murphy, Kate Pistole, and Principal Sabrina Farler. Not Pictured Lileigh Smith.

December 12, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

A 13-year-old DeKalb West School student was taken into custody by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department Sunday after investigators learned that the 8th grader was threatening to bring a gun to school to shoot a teacher.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said the boy, who lives within two miles of the school at Liberty, was taken from his home Sunday evening and placed in a juvenile detention center in Cookeville. He will be charged in a juvenile petition with threat of assault to shoot a teacher. He will make an appearance later this week in juvenile court.

“Director of Schools Patrick Cripps called me today (Sunday) at 3:30 p.m. and said that DeKalb West School Principal Sabrina Farler had contacted him about a child planning to bring a gun to school” said Sheriff Ray.

“I immediately got the school’s SRO and a detective to go find the child. He was at home with his mother and step-father. The SRO and detective questioned the boy and he admitted to making the threat although he said it was done in anger and that he really didn’t mean it after he calmed down. The boy was taken into custody and transferred to the Cookeville detention center,” said Sheriff Ray.

Both the SRO and detective conducted a sweep of the boy’s home and no weapons were found. Sheriff Ray said the parents were cooperative. There are no plans to file charges against them.

Sheriff Ray said although the threat no longer exists there will be extra officers at DeKalb West School Monday and parents should not be afraid to send their children to school.

“I want to commend the student who came forward to report this threat and I encourage any student with information about any potential threat in the future to contact the school’s SRO, teachers, principals, or parents to report it. We take all threats seriously,” said Sheriff Ray.

Director of Schools Cripps added his thanks to everyone involved from the school level to the sheriff’s department for their fast action in getting to the bottom of this threat

“I appreciate Principal Farler and Assistant Principal Joey Agee for immediately following through on our established protocols when learning of the threat and Sheriff Ray along with Detective Stephen Barrett and DWS School Resource Officer Billy Tiner who responded quickly and kept us in the loop the whole way,” he said. “I also join Sheriff Ray in commending the student who reported this. When students hear of these kinds of threats being made, we want them to feel like they can come to us so we can stop anything that potentially could happen and get the person who makes the threat the help or whatever they may need as well. The safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff is of the utmost importance and we want to ensure everyone that we are doing everything we can to make the schools as safe as possible,” said Director Cripps.

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