The staff and students of Oglethorpe Point Elementary School on St. Simons Island, Ga., were faced with a potential homicidal subject on the morning of Aug. 16.
The night prior, a man armed with a handgun, held his girlfriend hostage at her residence for more than five hours while her children slept in the next room. Both she and the assailant had both fallen asleep with him holding the gun on her.
The next morning, she awakened and woke her children in an attempt get them safely out of the house and notify law enforcement. Unfortunately, they were not stealthy enough in the process, and he overheard them, and ran out of the residence and jumped in the car with them as they were attempting to drive away. This gave the woman little alternative but to play along and go ahead with the routine of taking the kids to school.
She walked the kids inside the building as she usually did every morning while leaving him in the vehicle. Once inside, she notified the school staff of what had transpired. Without hesitation, the staff locked the school down, notified the Glynn County Schools Police along with the Glynn County Police Department (GCPD), and both agencies responded rapidly. The subject then fled the area on foot.
The school police handled securing and clearing the school campus while their standard police counterparts with the GCPD located the subject on foot a half mile away. The assailant had fled the area upon approach of law enforcement.
School staff, school police, along with the county police responded as they’ve been trained and contained the subject from entering the campus. School staff followed “The First 30 seconds” crisis response training skills taught by Glynn County Schools Police Chief Rod Ellis, who uses training course materials developed by Michael Dorn of Safe Havens International. Interagency training by both law enforcement agencies came into play as well that day to achieve a safe end to the crisis.
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