By Billy Davis
and Rupert Howell

Law enforcement has policies and procedures to react to a school shooting within the South Panola School District, Batesville police said Monday.

BPD Chief Tony Jones said he wanted to reassure the public following last week’s school massacre in Connecticut.

Twenty children and six adults were reportedly killed by the 20-year-old gunman, Adam Lanza, at an elementary school.

To maintain security, BPD Deputy Chief Don Province described only a “general plan” that includes “communication and coordination” between school officials and authorities.

Asked if that communication is up-to-date and ongoing, Province said it is.

“We know what (school officials) will do, how they will react, in the event of a school shooting,” Province said. “And they know what we will do, too.”

The Batesville Police Department presently employs school resource officers, known as SROs, in the schools.

Jones would not say how many SROs are assigned to the schools and which buildings they patrol, citing security concerns.

The police chief agreed with a reporter’s characterization that SROs are trained as a first line of defense in the schools.

“Yes, very much so,” Jones said.

The SROs understand they must react first to an “active shooter,” he said.

“Their role is school safety, not to be school personnel,” said Province. “They know they’re in the schools to protect the students.”

The SRO program is a joint endeavor with South Panola and the City of Batesville. The school district pays three-fourths of the police officers’ salaries while Batesville pays the remainder, said Province.

South Panola has “training in place to act and react to certain situations such as lock-downs,” South Panola Superintendent Dr. Keith Shaffer said last week, hours after the shooting.

“But an event like that makes you rethink it,” Shaffer told The Panolian. “I can’t think about it without feeling the pit in the bottom of my stomach.”

Local law enforcement has undergone school-shooting training in recent years, first at South Panola High and most recently, last June, at Batesville Junior High.

The scenarios are known as “active shooter” scenarios in which authorities locate “bad guys” who are holding students hostage.

Panola Emergency Management works with Miss. Emergency Management to oversee the scenario.

A mixture of law enforcement agencies are pooled to challenge the agencies to work together in a high-stress environment, officials have said.

Both active-shooter scenarios in Batesville, incidentally, included a school resource officer who is wounded by gunmen and must be evacuated.

Panola EMA director Daniel Cole said the next active shooter scenario will be held next summer.
The event will likely move to a North Panola school to train law enforcement and school personnel in north Panola County, said Cole.

Robert King, North Panola’s conservator, said Monday the school district has plans for disasters, both natural and man-made.

“There are plans in place,” said King. “Hopefully we’ll never have to use them.”

North Panola has SROs in its schools who are deputies with the Panola County Sheriff’s Department, King said. An unarmed security officer is also employed by the district.

North Delta School headmaster John Howell Jr. said Monday he is sending a letter to parents to inform them of the current security plan at the school as well as plans to improve safety at the school.

School security will be a main topic at an upcoming board of directors meeting and at other meetings with school staff and students through the new year, Howell wrote in his letter.

“We ask that you pray for our school and for the welfare of our students, and our prayers remain with the families who lost children and loved ones at Sandy Hook Elementary,” Howell wrote.