Neelyville schools went into lockdown early Sept. 12 for over an hour before resuming classes without incident. The cause of the lockdown is not yet known, but was described as a “community threat” in a school announcement.
Superintendent Heather Black said the lockdown began around 8 a.m. The Butler County Sheriff’s Department responded to the school campus and the Neelyville community and sounded the all-clear shortly after 9:30 a.m. Classes resumed as normal.
“The school was notified that there was a community threat and took precautionary measures and went on lockdown. Everyone is safe,” read notices on Neelyville Schools’ website and Facebook page.
Black could not say at the time of this article what the threat was, only that it was not an intruder. The school has many protocols in place for a variety of emergencies.
“We have, obviously, procedures in place and plans in place for situations like this. I’m hoping that we never have to use it, but we do plan for this,” she said.
Black went on to say the lockdown itself went smoothly. “Everything went as good as it could in that type of situation.”
Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs was unavailable for comment at the time of publishing but is expected to contact the Daily American Republic with further information.