LaFayette High spends Friday on high security

Published 10:43 am Friday, February 1, 2019

LaFAYETTE — LaFayette High School was under heightened security Friday following a threat made toward two employees of the school.

Superintendent Dr. Kelli Hodge confirmed that the school was under heavier security due to a threat made via graffiti within the school on Wednesday.

“We take every threat seriously whether it be on social media, straight to somebody’s face, wherever,” Hodge said. “All of our student resource officers except one that we kept in the valley are at LaFayette High School today. We are in ‘secure your area,’ and we did send a phone call today to all parents yesterday afternoon after school to let them know what would be taking place today, so that they could decide for themselves to send their child to school or not.”

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Hodge could not identify the positions of the threatened employees because of the active investigation by the LaFayette Police Department into the situation. She said that she worked from LaFayette High Friday to aid in the investigation.

Also referred to as code orange, ‘secure your area’ protocol  is a precautionary measure that ensures teachers and students are within their classroom with the doors locked.

According to protocol, Hodge said that all other area schools are advised to be under heightened awareness, paying attention to anything that could relate to the threats.

Hodge said it is difficult to determine who made the threat.

“If a threat is made on social media, we know who made it and can remove that person,” she said. “When it’s graffiti, you don’t know who actually put it up there so we have to take each situation, evaluate it and make a plan to address each one.”

LaFayette High School stayed under ‘secure your area’ all day Friday.

This story will be updated as more information is made available.