Intruder Alert Sparks Lockdown At Elementary School

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Va. – High Point Elementary School staff locked the building down for a tension-filled two hours Tuesday after three intruders were found inside.
Hundreds of parents gathered in front of the school at 14091 Sinking Creek Road as police converged on the scene. Some cried; others looked confused and angry as the facts filtered out bit by bit.
In the end, police apprehended two men and are still looking for a third.
None of the school’s 600 students, teachers and staff was injured during the incident, and school and police officials said the men did not threaten anyone. But that fact would not become clear until camouflaged sharpshooters, K-9 units and more than 50 law enforcement officers gained control of the situation.
State Police helicopters hovered overhead in search of the car believed to be driven by the third man, and cruisers sped up and down streets trying to locate the man. 
In the interim, students and teachers sought refuge in the school’s gymnasium, not knowing exactly what was transpiring.
One of those children belonged to Jerry Testerment, who clutched his 8-year-old daughter’s hand after the ordeal.
“I think the school and the police did everything right – that’s just the way it should be done,” Testerment said. “I understand that some parents are upset. I’d like to lock mine up and keep her safe; but we just don’t live in that kind of society anymore.”
School staff called the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 12:26 p.m. saying that two black men had entered the school and asked to use the telephone, Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said.
A white male entered shortly afterward and all three were asked to leave. When deputies arrived, one of the black males ran away on foot while the white male fled the school in an older model white Chevrolet Caprice, Newman said.
The third suspect, William Gerald Skaggs, 35, of 2453 Broad St., Bristol, Tenn., stayed inside the school, barricaded himself in a closet in the school office, found a sharp object and began slashing his arms, Newman said.
“He had shut himself in a closet and had cut his arms with a piece of glass,” Newman said. “He told us later he had used cocaine earlier in the day.”
Skaggs has been charged with possession of a schedule II controlled drug, destruction of private property, disorderly conduct, trespass and violation of probation, Newman said. Additional charges are pending.
Skaggs was first taken to Johnston Memorial Hospital where his injuries were treated. He also received a mental evaluation at the hospital after which he was released to sheriff’s deputies who booked him into the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon without bail.
“It was thought early in the day that this man may have had a knife, but that turned out not to be true,” Newman said.
No charges have been filed against the man who fled on foot and was captured, and the sheriff said he was not releasing the man’s name at this time.
“That doesn’t mean there will not be charges filed against him, but we’re not releasing his name at this point,” Newman said. “At the time, we really didn’t have anything to charge him with. He was really cooperative when we interviewed him, and we know his whereabouts.”
Police began pulling away from the scene about 2 p.m. – the same time parents were told they could pick up their children after they returned to their individual classrooms and a final head count was taken.
The children were released about 2:30 and were picked up by parents at the front door and in the car line. Other children boarded buses and took their regular routes home. 
Steven Fuller waited for hours in the cold hoping his wife, a teacher at the school, and his 8-year-old third-grader were going to be OK.
“My wife was able to get a message to me on someone else’s cell phone,” he said. “She was whispering, and it scared me to death. She was almost in tears. I knew something was wrong, but I’m relieved.”
High Point is Washington County Public Schools’ second largest of seven elementary schools.
About 570 students were in class and about 70 teachers and staff were at the school when the intruders entered the building.
During one of the half-dozen occasions on which Alan Lee, Washington County Public Schools superintendent, walked down to the road to update parents, one woman asked him if he would now lock all the doors, including the one the men entered unchecked.
Lee said he talked with school board members Tuesday afternoon, and they do plan to evaluate the current system and the possibility of locking all doors, with entry available only to those who buzz in and can be identified. He said the first step will be to discuss the situation with the school’s faculty advisory team. The next step will be to meet with staff and parents.
If it seems the new system is warranted, Lee said, the school board would then have to unanimously approve the new procedure.
“We [he and school board members] talked a number of times about going to a system where people must buzz in, be identified and then allowed access by someone inside,” Lee said late Tuesday. “That certainly would have been helpful in this case. But if a violent person shows up at the front door with a gun and really wants in – they’re going to get in.”
Lee said Tuesday’s incident was random in that the men claimed they had run out of gas and were looking for a telephone.
“The sheriff and I have no feeling that they came to the school to harm anyone,” Lee said. “I know parents feel less comfortable about things now. But I still believe there are faults with a buzzer system. For instance, one person can get buzzed in and two others can follow that person right in.”
Ann Cunningham, High Point’s principal, declined comment and asked that all questions be directed to Lee.
Elizabeth Lowe, Washington County School Board vice chair, spoke with Lee on Tuesday afternoon and said the board does plan to revisit the possibility of locking all doors and using a buzzer system at the front entrance.
Among the numerous law enforcement and emergency agencies who responded to the school Tuesday were the Washington County Sheriff’s Office; Virginia State Police; Bristol Virginia Sheriff’s Office; Bristol Virginia Police Department; and agents from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Washington County Fire and Rescue also responded to the incident.
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