Ridley and Crumley
MONTICELLO – In the last school year, there were 13 threats of violence in Sullivan County schools.
Sheriff Sgt. Cheryl Crumley, speaking at Thursday’s meeting of the county legislature’s Public Safety committee, said three arrests have made this school year for making a terroristic threat. One of those arrests resulted in seizure of weapons from a home.
“We investigate every single threat,” Crumley said. “We work with the schools and we go to the safety meetings. We go to kids’ houses, speak to the parents. We take weapons.”
Also addressing the legislators was NRA certified firearms instructor Robert Ridley, a lieutenant in Dutchess County’s Fairview Fire District.
Ridley said part of his mission is getting teachers to see early signs of potential problems.
“We go over the risk factors, the direct indicators, students show that they’ve actually begun planning something, such as seeking out firearms, stockpiling of firearms, ammunition, components used in the manufacture of explosives, documentation of specific plans for attack, or violent fictional stories.”
Ridley also noted an increasingly alarming commonality, one that came into play this week in the Saugerties school district; individuals who hold in high esteem perpetrators of past horrific attacks, dating back to Columbine in 1999.
Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Schiff said the first layer of defense is prevention.
