DeKalb Officials Honor McNair Staff

Absent from the event was Antoinette Tuff, the school bookkeeper who urged the alleged shooter to turn himself in. Officials were quick to praise Tuff, McNair teachers, and principal Brian Bolden. Bolden says he put his staff through emergency training drills once a month.

“There are a lot of people that believe practice makes perfect,” Bolden says. “We don’t believe that. We believe perfect practice makes perfect. And I think a lot of that came from me being a basketball coach. We would just drill and drill until we got it right.”

And teachers say their students are doing all right. Fifth grade teacher Renee Vaughn says her class learned from the experience.

“They realized, though, in life, sometimes their behavior contributes to a positive outcome because no one made any noise; you would have thought our room was empty,” she says. “The lights were out, we were in the corner, they were uncomfortable, but they were fabulous, so we’re pleased about that.”

While the staff earned compliments for their handling of the situation, some parents have expressed concern with the lack of a uniform notification system the day of the shooting. Interim Superintendent Michael Thurmond says the district is considering hiring an outside consultant to review emergency procedures, including an alert system.

“That we will look at as well to make sure we’re taking advantage of all the more recent technologies, as well as our existing resources, to ensure the safety of our students as well as our employees,” Thurmond says.

Thurmond said the district will also consider whether to add more security personnel. However, DeKalb officials denied reports the district will install metal detectors at schools.