Superior School locked down briefly

Superior School experienced a brief lockdown when a student made disparaging remarks to the high school principal, Chris Clairmont on Friday, March 9. The remarks were concerning enough for Clairmont to take action for both the high school and the elementary school to be on lockdown for almost an hour.

The incident occurred at the end of the lunch hour and Superintendent Scott Kinney said all of the students were accounted for within five minutes, even two students who had gone home for lunch.

The sheriff’s office was notified, and after an investigation,the lockdown was lifted. Kinney notified parents with a post on Facebook that officials did not believe any students or staff members were in danger. The post was taken down by the end of the school day.

They also used the schools phone and email messaging system. Due to a glitch in the system, not all parents were notified. Kinney said the school’s technical team has since fixed the software problem. However, he said if contact information changes, they have no way of updating the list unless they are told by the parents.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to do this, but in this day and age, it’s necessary,” said Kinney. He commended the staff and faculty for their quick action and for the cooperation of the student body.

On Monday, Kinney and Clairmont had an assembly to explain the incident to the students, who thus had and opportunity to ask questions and discuss the incident. The school holds several emergency training exercises each year including fire and earthquake drills, bus safety drills, and lockdowns.

There be will be PIR meetings on Friday and teachers will be discussing this incident and future emergency preparedness training ideas for the future. Though it was an unfortunate incident, it did give the school a chance to participate in an emergency drill and Kinney felt they learned from it and were able to identify ways to improve their system.

The student whose remark led to the lockdown was released to the parents’ custody and is suspended with the name withheld. The incident is still under investigation.