Pine Ridge locked down after phone threat

ByMatthew Crane Reading Time: 3 minutes

Pine Ridge Elementary was locked down after they received a threatening phone message Tuesday morning.

According to Southeast Dubois School Corporation Superintendent Rick Allen, the school received a phone call at 9:58 a.m. from a caller who stated they “were on the roof and were going to kill the students.” The caller then hung up. Allen stated the caller sounded like a younger adult female and may have been placing the call through a cellphone.

The school was immediately locked down with lights out and authoities were notified. The Dubois County Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police responded and searched the school, its roof and grounds. They didn’t find anything suspicious and gave the all clear at 10:30 a.m.

“The caller never identified what school or the school’s name so all county schools were notified and went through some steps,” Allen said.

Allen also stated the school was still being extra vigilant and law enforcement personnel were still checking other areas and grounds associated with the schools.

The investigation into the threat is ongoing. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Dubois County Sheriff’s Department at 812-482-3522.

Allen also stated today’s event was a lesson in notification procedures for the school corporation. “We learned to be better in our timing,” he said via email — he is at a conference in Indianapolis.

Some parents have voiced anger and concern about how fast the school corporation notified the parents.

The school corporation operates Twitter and Facebook accounts for parents to follow. At 11:17, Allen posted a message about the situation at the school on the school corporation’s Twitter feed.

A similar message was posted on Facebook at about 11:15 a.m.; 45 minutes after the all-clear was given by the local authorities.

According to Allen, the Facebook post and School Reach call were sent at nearly the same time, however, about 30 minutes after the post was made, Pine Ridge principal Ryan Haas noticed the School Reach notification had not worked. He quickly resent the information.

Allen stated in an email that the school was in the process of replacing the current School Reach call system it uses to notify parents of weather delays, closings and other necessary items. The new system is expected to be installed next year.

Dubois County Sheriff Donnie Lampert acknowledged that for the school officials and responding law enforcement the focus is on the safety of the children. “I was really impressed with how fast Mr. Allen was at the school and how the school responded to the situation,” he said.

Lampert explained that it was important to notify parents after the scenario was secured and the children were safe but while the scenario was unfolding, it was time to focus on it and not notification. “We have to concentrate on keeping them safe. I takes time to set up a perimeter. It takes time to go through a school,” he said. “I hope people understand that we have to concentrate on the safety of the children and not with calling parents to let them know what is going on.”

In regards to how the local media knew about the incident before parents, they are monitoring law enforcement and emergency responder radio traffic and heard the calls for a response to the school when the scenario began to unfold.

Jim O’Neal, WITZ AM/FM News Director contributed to this report.

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