There was a lockdown today (Friday, November 8th) at Northeast Elementary Magnet School in Danville…but it was only a drill.
Students and staff at the school practiced what they would do in the event of a real emergency.
Principal Justin Thorlton says safety is something that is taken very seriously…
{‘’Two days ago Officer Lewallen from the Danville Police Department – she’s one of the SROs here within the District – she came over and did an ‘ALICE’ training with staff members on our early-out Wednesday just so everybody knows if there is a crisis what are you suppose to do in case of an emergency. And so I think all the teachers have a good hold on what they should do – and now we’re going to practice that on the kids as well,’’ said Thorlton during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News.}
School Resource Officer Danielle Lewallen blew a whistle signaling the start of the drill. Thorlton says that alerted teachers – giving them an option…
{‘’Kids will either – can lockdown within their classroom, and also the ‘ALICE’ training definitely does give you the option of kind of leaving the classroom and going out of the building – if they deem that’s a necessary thing to do,’’ said Thorlton.
(Northeast Principal Justin Thorlton. Note: You can click on the photo to enlarge it.]
The Northeast Principal added that kids were informed what to expect…
{‘’I told the kids, you know, we’re not trying to scare them or anything. Officer Lewallen sent over some great storybooks based upon the ALICE training people made some books for us. Just so everybody is aware. It’s not a thing to scare kids, or parents, or anything. It’s just more of an awareness of what you can do in case of an emergency,’’ added Thorlton.}
Parents and guardians were also alerted about the drill ahead of time so that no one would panic.
Back in April of 2017 Northeast Elementary Magnet School was placed on a ‘soft lockdown’ which kept kids inside for awhile because of a domestic disturbance that police were dealing with near the school.
