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Hazel Grove Elementary School was put on “soft lockdown” Wednesday after a shooting that left two people dead. Habersham County School Superintendent Matthew Cooper says the move was taken as a precaution.
Hazel Grove Elementary is located on Hwy. 13/Dick’s Hill Parkway just 1.2 miles south of Key Road where the shooting occurred. See Investigation continues into fatal shooting in Mt. Airy
Cooper tells Now Habersham that School Resource Officer Jamie Carver with the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office contacted the principal of Hazel Grove to inform her of the shooting.
“He advised her that even though there was no apparent threat to the school that it would be in the best interest of safety to place the school on a ‘soft lock-down,'” Cooper says. Procedures during a soft lockdown include locking all exterior doors to the school and keeping all students and staff inside. Cooper says all visitors to the school were carefully screened by school office staff and administrators and all instruction and inside activities proceeded as normal.
Cooper says he, along with Habersham County’s elementary schools director and two resource officers responded immediately to Hazel Grove “to ensure that there was no disruption to the school day and to ensure a maximum level of security at the school.”
Hazel Grove Principal Misty Turpin sent home a letter to parents informing them of what happened.
Superintendent Cooper says, “Our resource officers handled the situation very well and communicated quickly with the Hazel Grove Principal. I continue to be impressed with the level of security provided to our schools by the Habersham County Sheriff’s Department and by our other local and state law enforcement agencies.”
