Hollister School District officials Friday closely followed news of the mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School – with reports of 20 children and eight adults dead, including shooter Adam Lanza and his mother.
“All of our sorrow over the tragedy in Connecticut – we know how difficult it is to see the lives of young children end in such a violent way,” said Gary McIntire, Hollister School District superintendent. “It was an event that we all know and we hear all too often. We ask, ‘How can it happen in our community?’ But we know we have to expect it.”
McIntire said the school district put out an automated call to all parents at 5 p.m. Friday to let them know HSD has procedures and protocols in place to deal with an active shooter scenario and other emergency situations.
“It was the last day before we went on holiday recess, but we didn’t want the community to have a sense that we aren’t prepared,” he said.
McIntire said he had received an email Monday from the Rancho San Justo principal who said the school would conduct three lockdown drills this year, above the minimum of two required by the district. Calaveras School also does more drills than required each year, with an average of four.
He said he and school officials listened closely to see procedures Sandy Hook had in place to deal with an intruder on campus.
“They invested in a secure building, but (someone) was still able to get in,” McIntire said. “It’s quite unsettling to see how determined this person was.”
Cerra Vista School used its lockdown procedure recently when local law enforcement had a confrontation in a nearby neighborhood with a suspect in a kidnapping who was assumed to be armed. Though the lockdown happened after school, one teacher on campus acted quickly to round up students from an after-school program who were playing outside on the playground. She got them all into her classroom and secured the door.
