The Times West Virginian

Local News

September 6, 2008

Taylor schools put on lockdown

After receiving ‘vague’ threat; shooting incident reported in county

By Bill Byrd

FAIRMONT — Taylor County schools were closed to outsiders shortly before noon Friday after school officials said they received a “vague” threat targeting three children.

Police did not release any information Friday about the threat, despite repeated calls by reporters. Police also did not confirm or deny reports that the countywide school lockdown was linked to an alleged shooting in the county.

Many parents went to the schools to get their children as word spread of the lockdown, said School Superintendent Diane Watt.

Once it was explained to them that their children were safer inside the locked buildings which were being patrolled, inside and out, by police and school staffers, they were “very, very cooperative,” she said.

Watt said the lockdown was imposed after the central office got a call from the county’s 911 center about 11 a.m. The details of the call were “vague,” she said.

The center said there had been a shooting incident in the county involving a man and a woman. Watt said there was the “sketchy possibility” of a threat stemming from that incident against three children who were then at school. She would not be more specific about the call from the 911 center.

Watt also declined to name the schools where the three children were in class.

The lockdown went smoothly, she said. No students were injured and schools were dismissed at the regular time Friday afternoon, Watt said.

At schools where the three children were enrolled, all school buses were loaded at one time. Police then escorted the buses on their regular routes, she said.

Watt praised principals, teachers and school service personnel for following the county school’s emergency plan.

Watt said “they followed through beautifully.”

County Prosecutor John Bord said there was a shooting, and that it was being investigated by Grafton police with help from the Taylor Sheriff’s department and State Police.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com

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