RAPID CITY - Rapid City Police are still investigating
Tuesday's incident at Central High School, but Principal Pat Jones
said it was business as usual at the school on Wednesday.
"Kids were talking about it and teachers were talking about
it, but it didn't get in the way of what we needed to do today,"
Jones said. "I'm proud of our students and staff for being able to
move on and put it behind us."
The school was evacuated shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday after an
incendiary device ignited a small fire that burned three lockers in
the west end of the school.
No one was injured, and the damage was confined to the
lockers.
Police are calling the incident arson.
Sgt. Karl Jegeris said Wednesday that no suspects have been
found in the case but police are investigating.
Jones said students took final exams Wednesday as
scheduled.
He said many students expressed frustration about the
incident.
"We're just tired of those things going on and that kind of
attention coming to Central High School," Jones said.
Jones said teachers and students worked well together during
the evacuation process.
"I was never worried about the level of cooperation with our
students and staff," he said. "I knew they would be where they
needed to be and do what they needed to do."
He said students were evacuated just after 1 p.m. and were 100
feet away from the building.
The 100-foot guideline is standard practice for Central to
allow law enforcement plenty of room to respond and examine an
incident.
Once law enforcement responds, students are either moved back
inside if it is deemed safe or moved to a safe area. About half an
hour after Tuesday's evacuation, students were moved to the
Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
Jones said students will not have to make up the afternoon of
class they missed Tuesday while they were evacuated. School was
released at 2:30 p.m., 50 minutes earlier than the usual release
time.
School will be let out for the year at noon Friday. Friday
afternoon is reserved for students who need to take make-up exams.
Graduation practice will also be held that afternoon.
Central High School graduation is 5 p.m. Sunday.
Jones said security will be present at graduation as it is
every year, but no additional precautions will be put into
place.
"We've reminded our students that graduation is a serious,
solemn ceremony and needs to be treated as such," he said.
Jones said despite being frustrated by Tuesday's incident, he
was impressed by the way law enforcement handled it.
"All the different entities worked together with no turf wars.
They checked their titles at the door," he said. "To be able to see
all those entities working together on the same page is
fabulous."
Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or
katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com
