Superintendent addresses concerns about response to McNair shooting incident

Superintendent Michael Thurmond on Wednesday afternoon said that while the school district is capable of contacting parents via email, robocalling, text message, or social media, officials on Tuesday alerted local media because the reach was more widespread for the audience they needed to reach.

“Some aspects of the population have greater access to social media than others,” Thurmond said. “Not all parents in the beginning of the year provided us with information through which they could be contacted electronically.”

And he pointed to the success of the strategy.

“Not a single child was left at that Walmart,” Thurmond said, referring to the designated pickup point where parents and their children were reunited Tuesday afternoon.

He declined to comment on specifics about how Hill gained entry to the school, but said several district-wide security protocols were in place Tuesday.

“There were locks on doors and video cameras that helped police locate where he was,” Thurmond said. “The front office staff is also a part of that security. We will be evaluating every aspect of what was done yesterday (in terms of security).”

He said he was sensitive to concerns raised about sending students off-campus to meet parents and guardians. But when multiple bomb-sniffing police dogs indicated the chance that explosives were present in Hill’s car parked in front of the building, school officials had to comprise a new plan.

“The possibility of explosives changed everything,” Thurmond said. “We didn’t want parents to come running to a more dangerous situation.”

Counseling services will be available at the school through the end of the week, then staff will evaluate whether more is needed.