Philomath schools went into “secure status” Wednesday morning after police responded to a report of a suicidal woman with a knife on foot in a nearby neighborhood.
The incident occurred at approximately 8:10 a.m. when Philomath Police responded to a report from a citizen that a suspicious woman was walking on South 17th Street near Maple Street, a location directly east of Philomath Elementary School and Philomath Academy.
“We got a call of a suicidal subject that was armed with a knife … and was also approaching some cars,” Philomath Police Chief Dave Gurski said. “Our officers arrived in the area and weren’t able to locate the subject initially.”
As a precautionary measure, emergency dispatch contacted the elementary school, academy, primary school and middle school at about 8:12 a.m. to go to secure status. However, the middle school’s office could not be immediately reached because phones were down at the time, according to Philomath Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday.
“Secure status” is different from a full lockdown. During secure status, all doors are locked but normal activities continue within the building.
“You lock the doors inside and out but business is followed as usual within the school,” Halliday said about secure status. “There’s kids in the hallway and all of those kinds of things. There’s just nobody in or out.”
A full lockdown is a more serious response and involves all doors locked, lights off and students and staff out of sight.
The incident ended quickly and without incident. The woman was located near Main Street and Green Street and transported to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.
“It was only five minutes from start to stop,” Halliday said.
The schools did not go into a full lockdown and the situation was resolved before the middle school and high school could be notified.
The middle school’s phone issues created some concern for district officials. Halliday said the phone system at the middle school has experienced problems since lightning strikes late this summer.
Despite the communication hiccup, Halliday said the response went well overall.
“It actually went well in the places where it was administered,” Halliday said. “The action was running as it should and people were doing what they needed to do.”
The school district’s response protocols are based on those outlined by the I Love U Guys Foundation. The protocol involves an announcement to make sure everybody is inside the building, locking doors and putting up signage that alerts anyone trying to enter.
Gurski said police had no reason to believe the woman was heading in the direction of a school. A secure status request can be triggered by any number of situations close to a campus — police in pursuit of a suspect vehicle, wildlife that could possibly be threatening, an aggressive dog on the loose, or police responding to a call for service that has an element of risk or danger involved.
“It was just uncertain as to what the intentions of that subject was and whether or not they were going to head towards the school property or not,” Gurski said.
Such responses are uncommon, the chief said, estimating they happen maybe once a year.
Law enforcement and emergency response personnel perform annual training with the schools on how to handle threats.
“We talk to them about any changes in those protocols but they’ve been fairly well established for about the last five years or so,” Gurski said. “We train with them annually at each one of the schools and then also we’re having regular conversations with the superintendent.”
The situation served as a real-world test of the process with “something pretty easy and straightforward and less threatening to make sure that the system works,” Halliday said.
Ironically, Philomath Elementary had a routine lockdown drill scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but it was canceled after the situation in the morning.
Schools are required by law to conduct safety drills monthly.
“It used to be years ago that you’d just do a fire drill every month and that was about it,” Halliday said. “Now, we intersperse fire drills with earthquake drills and with secure drills, or lockdown drills … to make sure that students are aware of what the alarm sounds are. So if we have to go into a lockdown, there is a clear sound and you know what to listen for, what they mean and what you do so there’s constant awareness.”
Halliday communicated Wednesday morning’s situation to parents through the school district’s email system.
