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Local officials say Enterprise schools took right precautions in face of approaching storm
Students at the school had been sent to the hallways, the safest place in the school, but the direct hit by the tornado caused the building in one area to collapse, killing eight students. "Enterprise has caught a lot of flak for not letting those kids out, but they were in the safest place," Clarke County EMA Director Roy Waite said. Schools in Clarke County kept in contact with the EMA office during last Thursday's storm. Students were sent to designated safe areas in the schools during the worst part of the storm. "I think our schools' plans worked well. They kept the students in a safe position. We're all looking out for their [the students'] safety as well as we can. "Some parents chose to check their children out of school, but I don't recommend that in that kind of weather. They're safer at school than on the highway," Waite added. Gerald Stephens, Superintendent of Education for the Clarke County School System, also supports the decision made by school officials in Enterprise. "I think they did all they could do. We have a safety plan, which must be approved by the state, and they adhered to that," he said. Many schools in the state also serve as storm shelters, including several in Clarke County. "The safest place for a lot of these students is the school, not at home, or in a mobile home or on a bus. We had a deluge of calls wanting to know if we were going to let the students go. If their parents sent them to school in inclement weather, then we are not going to put them on the road. We may even keep them longer to keep them safe. We had some parents check their children out, and if they want to get their children then we have to let them," Stephens said.
"We're really between a rock and a hard place. Some thins you can't prevent. They (Enterprise) did everything they could do and they had those children in the safest place. I hope we're not ever faced with a situation like that," he added.
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