On Thursday, Oct.
25th, 2018, Springboro Schools decided to close Springboro High
School for the day. This decision was made as a precaution, for the safety of
our students and staff. At roughly 6:20am on Thursday, Oct. 25th,
Springboro Schools Administrative staff was made aware that a Springboro High
School student entered the high school building at approximately 1:15am, earlier
that morning. A custodian found the student in the building around 1:52am,
carrying only a school folder. The student was escorted out of the building by
the custodian. At roughly 2:06am, the student re-entered the building. Again, another
custodian noticed this around 3:00am and escorted the student out of the high
school building.
Upon learning about this incident at approximately 6:20am this morning, Springboro Schools Administrative staff notified the Springboro Police Department. A sweep was issued of the entire Springboro High School building, as a precautionary measure for the safety of our students and staff. Unfortunately, this sweep overlapped with the morning arrival of students. At first, students ready to enter Springboro High School were held outside of the building, while the sweep was occurring. After more time, Springboro Schools decided to close Springboro High School completely for the day. Again, this was done as a purely precautionary measure, in order for the Springboro Police Dept. to finish conducting their sweep, and to keep our students and staff safe. As a result of SHS closing, students from the high school, who arrived via bus, were transported back to their homes. This created a delay in pickup for our Elementary students. Therefore, a two-hour delay was put in place for Clearcreek Elementary, Dennis Elementary, and Five Points Elementary. No AM Kindergarten or AM Pre-School occurred.
Springboro
Schools apologizes for the inconvenience this may have caused for many members
of our community. Our administrative staff, once made aware of the incident at
6:20am, acted swiftly in order to ensure the safety of our students and staff
were met, as well as to inform the community. While a staff member was aware of
this incident earlier this morning, at approximately 1:52am, Springboro Schools
administrative staff was not made aware until close to 6:20am. We apologize for
this gap in response, and ensure you that this situation will be remedied.
Through the Springboro Police Dept.’s investigation, it was discovered that the student entered the high school building with a key that was taken from an unknown staff member. Please note, the key that was used for this has been confiscated by the Springboro Police Dept. That key was only usable in Springboro High School, not any of our other school buildings. The key is a hard-key, not a key-fob or badge.
As a result of
this, Springboro Schools is in the process of having all key locks at
Springboro High School replaced, in order to ensure no copies were illegally
made or that any incident similar to this can happen again.
Additionally, at approximately
5:15am this morning a fire alarm went off inside Springboro High School. This
was caused by a faulty sensor, in a separate area of the high school, and has
no correlation to the student entering the building. These incidents have been
deemed separate from one another.
The Springboro
Police Dept. has concluded their sweep of Springboro High School and has
determined there is absolutely no threat to the building, our students, or our
staff. Springboro High School will remain closed for the remainder of today,
Thursday, Oct. 25th. However, Springboro High School is scheduled to
be open, at normal time, with classes resuming in full tomorrow morning.
Given this, all
Springboro extra-curricular activities scheduled for this afternoon and this
evening will not be affected, and are scheduled to occur at their normal times
today, Thursday, Oct. 25th.
Again, we
appreciate the patience and support of everyone in the Springboro community.
Springboro Schools, the Springboro Police Dept. and the City of Springboro were
able to work together today to ensure the safety of our students, staff, and
community members were met.