Students evacuated from West Tennessee school due to threat
CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. —Â Friday around 12:40 p.m., West Carroll Junior/Senior High School staff discovered a possible bomb threat from a student in the school.
This threat was discovered after a faculty member heard about it from several students.
Then the staff followed their crisis training, which included evacuating the students and staff to a safe area and calling local law enforcement.
When the students were evacuated, they moved over to nearby silos over for protection. From there, buses came and picked the students up and carried them over to the churches in the center of town.
After the students were safely taken to the churches, they were taken to their homes via bus. Law enforcement arrived shortly after school faculty called and quickly established a safety perimeter.
“The perimeter was secured. We shut down the highway to keep any traffic from coming through. The Tennessee Highway Patrol responded with a dog, and they assisted in doing a sweep of the school and verifying that there was no threat,” said Chief Deputy Joel Pate, with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.
Around 3:30 p.m. law enforcement had completely searched the premises and determined the building was safe and the threat to be a false claim.
West Carroll Superintendent Preston Caldwell says he wants all students and parents to feel safe at school. He says they will continue crisis training and drills, practicing transparency with parents by using social media and their all call system, and meeting with their crisis team.
“While it was a threat today, and while we did everything we needed to do, it was a learning experience for us. Safety is our number one concern for all students, faculty, and staff at West Carroll,” Caldwell said.
The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office says this is an on-going investigation.
Find more news out of Carroll County here.
