Video: Columbus School District Reacts to Connecticut Shooting

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Friday’s tragedy in Connecticut hit home for everyone, especially parents.

“It’s very upsetting to me there should never be a situation where a child is in danger,” says Tim Wilcox, Cook Elementary principal.

After a gunman opened fire Friday at a Connecticut Elementary school, killing 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10, parents everywhere are wondering if their children are safe at school. Tim Wilcox is Principal at Cook Elementary. He says his school has emergency plans for situations like these.

“Cook and all of the Columbus Schools, we have a plan for any type of emergency that we may encounter find we have a plan any intruder that may come into the building. A lot of our teachers are trained. We have rehearsals on all these plans,” says Wilcox.

One way Cook Elementary School is keeping their children safe is by having only one entrance.

Parents and guests must enter through these doors behind me which lead to the office. They are then questioned and screened before they can pick up any child.

“We keep our plans very current. Every year they are revised. They are also reviewed by our resource officer in the district to make sure that they are useable by the law enforcement also,” says Wilcox.

After teaching in the school system for seven years, Chelsea Petty the drama teacher at Columbus Middle School has the same concerns almost all of us do.

“I would hope that at our middle school, that our children were safe, but knowing that this was at an elementary school it makes me start to wonder. This is the kind of thing you expect to happen at high school and college. You just don’t expect it with kids this young,” says Chelsea Petty.

Chelsea says, child safety is top priority in the Columbus School District.

“At Columbus the children’s safety is our first priorities. If they are not feeling safe and protected then they’re not being educated. I think our school district does a great job preparing us with things like lock down and we practice and procedures, but I guess when you think about it you wouldn’t be prepared if it actually occurred,” says Petty.

If you have any questions about safety procedures at your child’s school just contact the Columbus Municipal School District at (662) 241-7400.

Categories: Local News

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