Hardin County Schools Community Relations Specialist John Wright says the district takes any possible threat to school safety seriously.
“You never obviously want to have to go through anything like a threat to a building or, you know, God forbid a shooter or anything of the sort, but you have plans for those,” Wright said. “We have plans for every event, every tragedy or emergency that could happen.”
Those plans were put into effect Thursday morning when a reported threat forced the evacuation of Rineyville Elementary School. Students were evacuated and officers with the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and the Kentucky State Police searched the building while officials reviewed security camera footage.
Wright says the execution of the safety plan Thursday shows why planning is important.
“It’s never good for those things to happen, but when they do, it’s nice to know that the plan works,” Wright said. “Our buses came and evacuated students. We did what we needed to do today to keep our students safe. We feel good about our plans and everything worked today like we wanted it to.”
The threat at Rineyville is similar to recent threats that have been investigated at other schools around Kentucky. Wright thanked law enforcement and the Rineyville community for their support.
“We are super thankful for our friends in law enforcement,” Wright said. “They came to our aid immediately and did what they needed to do to ensure students have safety, so we’re grateful for our community, our parents, and everyone that helped take care of our students.”
More information on school safety plans can be found on the Hardin County Schools website.
