Officials tighten school security
Modifications to the security plan at Fauquier High School were implemented Wednesday, April 2.
The changes include increased monitoring of entrances and restricted access at certain doors.
In a recent press release, school officials said specific doors would be designated to be open all day. Others will be open at specific times, such as before school, or during class changes and lunch.
Students received a list of which doors would be affected when they returned from spring break on Monday. Administrators and faculty helped the students get used to the changes early this week.
Fauquier High School Principal Roger Sites said there "absolutely is a nexus" between the changes in the security plan and the notes containing bomb threats at the school last month.
But he said those incidents were not the only factors that prompted the changes.
Specifically, Sites said that "horrific" acts of school violence in the country this year also caused school officials here to start changing the existing security plan.
"We want to be proactive. We've been locking doors all along, and were planning on implementing a more formal plan next year," Sites said. "We decided to start now and tweak[the plan as we go along]."
Fauquier County Sheriff Charlie Ray Fox Jr. said he is looking at alternatives to existing response plans for certain incidents at the county's schools. He declined to elaborate on what those alternatives may be.
Any changes in the plans would ultimately have to be approved by the superintendent of schools, Fox said.
E-mail the reporter: abogdanovic@timespapers.com