School officials made right call

Published 1:34 pm Tuesday, March 15, 2016

You’ve always wanted one of those well-paying, cushy school superintendent jobs, right?

Maybe not so much last Thursday morning. At least not in Butler County.

Greenville Middle School, Greenville Elementary School, W.O. Parmer Elementary and the Butler County Schools Central Office were placed on lockdown after school officials were alerted to a possible threat.

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There was a time when the situation would have been handled differently. In a different day and time, it might have simply been passed off as a hoax or a prank. Business as usual would have continued on the campuses.

While the threat turned out to be unfounded, school officials acted with great caution and immediately put into place the protocols the district has developed along with law enforcement officials.

We understand it’s never an easy decision to lockdown a campus, but we applaud our administrators for making that call on Thursday.

In the world we live in, where tragedies such as the school shootings at Columbine and Sandy Hook happen all too often, our administrators simply can’t be too careful.

Certainly a school lockdown or school closure might be an inconvenience for us as parents. Not to mention it’s just plain scary. But all of that is a small sacrifice on our part in support of the bigger message of safety for our children.

It’s important for those school officials, who are tasked with making that call, to know that they have the support of their community in that decision.

We certainly feel they made the right decision.

We would also be remiss if we did not credit the work the Greenville Police Department did in responding.

Within an hour of the lockdown being initiated, the situation was resolved with an arrest.

While the situation was a scary one, we’re thankful that it had a safe ending for everyone.