Request made due to police activity in area
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
Local law enforcement officials requested Monroe Avenue Elementary School Principal Dawn Terry to implement security and safety measures this morning while an operation was taking place.
Dawn Terry
Terry said she received calls from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and the Hamlet Police Department at about 11:20 a.m., after which she put the school in lockdown mode. Though policy activity within the area soon ceased, “we have continued that (lockdown) until the end of the day,” Terry said.
“We continue to keep our exterior doors locked until the very end of the school day,” she said.
The school day is scheduled to end at 3 p.m.
Other than canceling outdoor recess, Terry said it appears to students and staff “a regular day. Learning is still continuing.”
“We’re tuckin’ everybody in and holding everybody tight,” Terry said.
Mallory Brown, public information director for Richmond County Schools, said the sheriff’s office indicated the policy activity was a “pursuit in the vicinity of the school.”
“Deputies later informed the school that the incident was under control, but as a precautionary measure the school kept its exterior doors locked until its regularly scheduled dismissal,” Brown wrote in an email to the Post. “There were minimal disruptions during this time and classes continued as usual. Richmond County Schools continues to hold student safety as its highest priority.”
Brown said that only Monroe Avenue Elementary School was the only school impacted by the lockdown.
An inquiry to the sheriff’s office wasn’t immediately returned.
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