Gillette school officials review safety measures hours after lockdown

GILLETTE — Hours after ending a lockdown at Sage Valley Junior High School over a threat to shoot students and faculty, Kirby Eisenhauer found himself talking to the school board about a new safety system a committee is recommending to test in the Campbell County School District.

Eisenhauer, the district’s deputy superintendent, said he has been meeting with a committee to examine ways to improve security, safety and crisis systems throughout the K-12 schools in Campbell County.

His presentation was planned well before the incident just seven hours earlier embroiled the students, parents and faculty at Sage Valley and alarmed the community.

A 14-year-old student brought two guns into the school — and 36 rounds of ammunition — and threatened to shoot a teacher and students he was unhappy with.

Another student went to Principal Terry Quinn to tell him of the threat and that the 14-year-old boy had brought two firearms into the school that day.

Quinn immediately contained the 14-year-old, confiscated the guns and put the school on lockdown before calling police.

Eisenhauer was at a meeting in Casper and immediately began to drive back to Gillette. He was nearly to Midwest when the lockdown was lifted after a police investigation.

So his report about additions to safety systems he recommended for area schools — to create faster reaction times for law enforcement and quicker alerts — certainly resonated with school board trustees.

“This presentation is based on a system we’ve been

looking at through committee work for some time,” he said. “It’s in no way related to the situation we had at Sage Valley today.”

At the same time, those trustees could also see the need for an alert system available inside schools — for students or staff use — to set off immediate responses from law enforcement. Eisenhauer showed a video of a demonstration of the system marketed by Bluepoint Alert Systems.

It came after the committee looked into 20 apps for school safety that are being marketed, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg on products available, Eisenhauer said.

“But finally we got to the point where we said, ‘what do we need?’ There’s all these different things on the market,” he said. “We need to decide what we need first and then try to select the best system to meet the need and that’s what we did.”

The Bluepoint system “would suit our needs and, again, make us better,” Eisenhauer said.

He’s not one to talk specifically about what security systems are in place in schools, in case someone is planning something, he said. But this one would set up blue stations around the school where someone could pull a handle (similar to a fire alarm) if there were an incident that scared them or they felt there was a threat to their safety.

Faculty could do the same from lanyards or computers. That would result in instant notification to law enforcement and immediate alerts in the school, with information and maps on where in the building the situation is happening and where officials need to respond to.

“The device you see here — on a lanyard — is like a device that would unlock your car,” Eisenhauer said. “You could put the building in a lockdown right now.”

The system would send out texts and maps to police and other responders with the layout of the school and could pinpoint where the trouble is.

It would provide faster police response, Eisenhauer said.

“It’s something we think would make us better,” he added. “We have funding through a grant for some of our schools to try it out.”

From there, administrators could decide if they want to expand it to include all Campbell County schools.

He may bring bids for that product or something similar to the school board for approval at its next meeting in December.

Trustee Chairwoman Anne Ochs also spoke about the passage of the Optional 1 Percent Sales Tax in the general election. Since voters selected school safety funding as a priority in Campbell County, the district may have access to more money for school resource officers, she said.

Those decisions have yet to be made about a full-time position.

“Now they’re (police) shorthanded and they’re replacing people and I’m not sure where that will go,” she said. “We’ll continue working with the city and see what we can do.”

Superintendent Alex Ayers also recognized the quick action taken at Sage Valley on Tuesday morning that prevented a possible tragedy.

“I think this is a fitting time to recognize the event today at Sage Valley and give a thank you for our PD department, our administration and the student who reported to us,” he said. “If kids see something they need to say something. The city’s really been pushing that and the PD department and we are as well. That kid’s a hero in my mind.”