The Pilot News - Safe and uneventful school day a relief

Triton Schools Superintendent Carl Hilling said that overall, the student population in attendance was down, 40 percent of that being at the junior-senior high school (where bomb and death threats originated over the past few weeks) and 62 percent of students showed up for classes at the elementary.
“I’m proud to say that we had 100 percent of the staff on campus,” he said. “Luckily we had no big climax.”
When students did arrive Wednesday, they were met by members of the Indiana State Police, Bourbon Police Depart-ment, Marshall County Sheriff’s Office and the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department who blanketed the area in an effort to secure the Bourbon schools’ inside and out, and as one student stated — ”even including the cafeteria.”
In a press release issued by the Indiana State Police Department’s Public Information Officer Trent Smith, Hilling had said: “The officers were very respectful and professional while going about their duties, helping to ensure a very safe and calming influence for our students and staff. The impressive example set by all of the officers involved was crucial in maintaining our sense of safety as we went about our normal daily routine.”
Adults were asked to not to be on the grounds and only one entrance was open to anyone entering the building. All entrances were heavily guarded by armed police officers and students were kept from rooms with windows to the outside. Their daily “grind” of tests was more relaxed than originally planned for the school day. A K-9 bomb dog was on site inspecting all the lockers and the grounds, searching for weapons to no avail.
“We have 600 kids in the building,” said Superintendent Hilling at a press conference held 45 minutes after high school let out (at the Matchett Square Senior Center in Bourbon). “I can understand people not wanting to send their kids to school. That was their choice; however, this was a safe, secure day and the end result was fine. But we are not just resting on this day. I appreciate all those that showed their support and showed up. We had a crisis plan in place and I had faith in our local law enforcement. I have to take my hat off to Michael Chobanov (high school principal) and Bob Ross (high school assistant principal) and Jeremy Riffle (elementary principal); they’ve done a great job. We’re not professionals as law enforcement, but we are prepared.”
Hilling said he was very impressed with the cooperation of all the area law enforcement entities with the local fire and EMS departments and that of the entire Triton staff.
“We were alert, stayed focused and followed through on our plans,” he added. “We will get together at a later time and go over everything.”
Police will continue to be seen at the school games, activities and during the school day for the remainder of the week and had been present for the music program held in the high school auditorium Tuesday even-ing, the night before the threatened attack.
Other safety measures will be enforced indefinitely. Four new security cameras installed, which re-vealed better surveillance for the building’s “blind spots,” will remain up and are expected to be hooked to a national safety agency in the future.
Potential tragedy was dodged, but all involved will be keeping their guards up. Hilling said that part of the crisis plan is instilled every day, but this string of threats only heightened awareness.
“I think we were just as prepared as we will be in the future. We update our crisis plan every year but I’m sure the administration and law enforcement will meet to critique how things went,” Hilling said.
While no representative for the law enforcement agencies was on hand at the press conference, Hilling said to his knowledge police had followed through on all leads and administration had scanned through all the students that were “frequent office visitors,” but that the situation was still under investigation.
“People tried to compare this to the Columbine tragedy but it was not that kind of situation,” he said. “They had warnings weeks in advance. It was terrible that it happened, but all high schools have benefited from those mistakes. No district will be the same. Sadly, it is a sign of the times; it doesn’t matter how small the school or town is. As an administrator, you have to expect the unexpected. The 9/11 tragedy has heightened everyone’s awareness. It is frightful and fearful but we have to — as a nation —expect these types of things.”