Swift action by Suncrest Elementary School faculty possibly prevented a very serious situation from happening late in the afternoon of February 27 after school secretary Buffy Smith saw a man on the property who wasn’t acting appropriately.
“Our principal (Stephanie West) made a very quick decision and decided it was best for the building to go on lockout,” said Community Schools of Frankfort Superintendent Don DeWeese. “Our kids were after school with enrichment going on. We got all of our kids into classrooms behind locked doors and classrooms that din’t have any windows.”
DeWeese said Frankfort Police responded very quickly to the situation and arrested a man who was later identified as 33-year-old Nicholas Celentano of Okeechobee, Florida, who was visiting friends at a residence on Hawthorne Avenue which had been visited by the police department an hour earlier for an unresponsive individual.
“Most of our kids didn’t even know it had occurred,” said DeWeese. “The lockout went very smoothly and none of our kids were unsafe.”