On Thursday, each East Helena school was swept by law enforcement out of precaution following the discovery of a suspicious device around a block away from Helena High.
In situations like this, East Helena superintendent Dan Rispens says it’s better to be overly safe than sorry.
“It's a top concern, always,” Rispens said. “We just wanna make sure that we air on the side of caution when it comes to taking safety precautions.”
After hearing about the incident near Helena High from a school resource officer, Rispens connected with Helena schools, and had SRO’s, helped by East Helena police, conduct full sweeps of each East Helena school, ensuring everyone’s safety.
“They are always looking for, in those situations, something out of the ordinary that maybe shouldn't be there and might require further inspection,” Rispens said.
The sweeps were quietly done at the middle school and elementary schools, given there was no immediate threat. However, since the high school students are allowed to leave campus during their lunch, they were made aware of the event that students planned to attend the protest in Helena.
“It’s not uncommon that they might be leaving, and that was partly our concern before lunch, was to just let them know that it wasn't a safe situation and they shouldn't be getting involved there.”
Rispens was pleased with East Helena’s response.
And he noted that East Helena schools are locked all the time with high security measures in place, maintaining safety as the top priority.
“We also wanted to make sure that parents knew that we were aware and taking it seriously and that we were working with law enforcement to make sure that kids were safe in their classrooms.”
