This week at Ada High School has been crazy. There have been two threats in just the past three days. One was on Tuesday, when a threat was discovered in the girl’s bathroom written on the stall. The second threat greeted students when they arrived for school on Thursday morning. The spray painted threat was found by a student outside on the wall and benches.

Jeff  Maloy, the principal at Ada High School, said, ” I would hope not but now days you have to take everything serious, so I can’t really say,” when asked if he felt any of the threats would be followed through with,

Maloy was also asked what precautions the school would be taking. “We increased our security and there are Ada police officers at the school both day and night and during the school day. Also our teachers had to go through a safety training class”

Students, parents, faculty, and parents are questioning whether or not these threats will continue to plague Ada High. Maloy addresses these concerns.  “If we catch the people making the threats then possibly” the threats will end.  “We have the Ada police here both day and night and during the school day”.

Rumors have circulated regarding the possibility of a hit list surfacing amidst these threats. Maloy states, ” I never saw a hit list and the police never saw a hit list, so I believe the rumors are false.”

The reliability of the cameras around the school has also been called into question in light of recent events. Maloy assured worriers that “they do work. The problem is they can’t catch everything. The person who spray painted the threat in the front is lucky the camera missed them.”

Officer Jeremy Keck is the leading officer over the investigation of the threats and was  asked what the Ada Police Department is doing to help with the threats. “We are investigating the threats as much as we can. We have already made one arrest. We hope that with the presence of some of our officers at the school the threats will end.”

On Jan. 19th, all of the teachers and staff at Ada High School participated in a special safety training: Alert Lockdown Inform Counter and Evacuate (ALICE). ALICE is a program which partners with the local police to help with survival against violence. In the event that  an intruder was able to get inside the building, teachers would now barricade the doors and find another way to help their  students to exit the building safely. Teachers have already went over the new intruder policy with their students to prepare them. The administration has learned from the ALICE program that instead of hiding like the old policy states, they should retaliate against the intruder, and if possible, leave the scene. For more information on the ALICE program visit: http://www.alicetraining.com/