Campus safety is a priority at all educational institutions.
Thursday morning at Vance-Granville Community College, the protocols in place helped maintain safety and order on the main campus in what was a real situation that turned out to involve a BB gun.
Law enforcement responded to the Poplar Creek Road location shortly before 9:30 a.m.
VGCC President Dr. Rachel Desmarais described the situation to WIZS about two hours after it happened, and she said, “There was no threat to the campus … We determined that but we didn’t know to begin with … I am proud that our systems held up, that we responded appropriately.”
Two parents were using the campus as a halfway point to exchange custody of a child. The offending parties, including a dad and his two minor-age children, were in fact trespassing. While they were waiting for the mom, some horseplay broke out along the tree line towards Poplar Creek Road, and a BB gun was in plain view.
Desmarais used a couple of words while talking to WIZS News such as “astounding” and “inappropriate” and “harrowing.”
She said, “I was one of the people who observed it and you don’t know that that’s play acting.”
Neither parent nor the children were affiliated with the school at all. Desmarais said campus was a “halfway point for them so it had nothing to do with us. Unbeknownst to us they had used the campus previously to make this transfer between the children, but obviously not when school is in session.”
Of the protocols, Desmarais said, “They were followed, and they worked.”
Sheriff Curtis Brame told WIZS that no charges would be filed.
Apparently the parents were told not to be on campus again.
“Safety is really important to us,” Desmarais said.