Student Threatens to Shoot Up Russell County High School

On Tuesday, September 22^nd, 2015, Russell County High School was put on lockdown because a student brought a firearm to school and threatened to cause harm to the individuals inside the building. At around 8:30 am to 8:30am, the school security guards heard rumors that someone was planning to shoot up the school. Although they were just rumors, the guards contacted the Sheriff’s office and they arrived at the school within minutes. After searching the student’s personal belongings, they found nothing, but eventually came to the conclusion that he stole his dad’s .22 caliber pistol from a safe in his home, after it came up missing. He was then taken into custody and the weapon was confiscated and taken into evidence. The lockdown was lifted at 11:08 am.

The parents, along with the students, were outraged because they did not receive the details of the incident until a day after. The school did called the parents to inform them that the school was on lockdown, but that it was only a drill.

I contacted two students that were present at the time of the incident, and they identified the perpetrator as Wyatt Strickland. I asked one, who asked to remain anonymous, what her experience with the incident was and she said, “Okay, well none of us really knew the whole story until today (Sept 23). They were just trying to keep the issue contained, you know? Keep from scaring all of us. It was pretty scary, though, from what we were informed of yesterday (Sept 23). All of us were and are still on edge. I mean, who knows what might have happened? We’re just lucky nothing happened.”

Tia D. Howard,

Editor