Baxter Schools Placed On Soft Lockdown Thursday Afternoon

Upperman High School, Upperman Middle School, Cornerstone Elementary School, and Baxter Primary School placed on a soft lockdown Thursday afternoon on the advice of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Eddie Farris said the department received a call around 1:00pm about a domestic issue on Ward Mill Road. Farris said according to the call, the suspect was liable to be armed, so the department advised a precautionary lockdown at the nearest schools.

“If we don’t have it sorted out by the time school’s out, then we’ll certainly have enough deputies down at the school systems on all of them to make sure things go safely as parents come and the bus leaves,” Farris said. “So, we don’t expect any issues at the schools, we’re just simply doing that out of precaution.”

Farris said the office is constantly in contact with School Resource Officers to keep them updated on the situation. He said the department has yet to discover the name of the individual, but they are working with a rough description to locate him.

“Our SROs are part of this process, so as soon as it’s taken care of, our School Resource Deputies will let the school administration know and we’ll resume business as normal,” Farris said.

He said a soft lockdown is all about awareness. He said schools continue to function normally, the lockdown is put in place to alert administration and faculty to the situation at hand. The lockdown also requires that no one enter or exit school buildings to maintain security.

“It’s also making sure that the law enforcement deputies at the schools and all of our schools, specifically the ones that are in question, to make sure that we have enough personnel there to make sure that things are safely taken care of and business can go on as normal,” Farris said.

Farris said any time there is a chance that violence or other threats could bleed over into a school zone, the lockdown goes into effect as a precaution.