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Former student cutting through school property prompts lock-out at Coxsackie-Athens
Bill Williams and Ted Remsnyder are reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Coxsackie-Athens School District went into lock-out mode on June 2, after a suspicious person was seen on school grounds. The incident began around 10:45 a.m., after a male former student drove onto school property, parked his car and walked into the woods near the school, according to Greene County 911. “When there’s something outside of the schools that we’re not sure of, we lock out until we can ascertain if there’s any type of threat to anybody in the school,” said Coxsackie-Athens Superintendent Randall Squier. Coxsackie Police, Greene County Sheriff’s Office and state police were called to the school and immediately began searching the wooded area and the nearby village streets in an attempt to locate the subject. The person police were looking for was found within the hour said Coxsackie Police Chief Samuel Mento. The man was running late for a funeral and he decided to park at the school and cut through the woods to Mansion Street in order to catch a ride. He was dressed in black because he was on his way to the memorial service being held that morning for Coxsackie-Athens alumnus, Lance Cpl. Colby R. Lord, Mento said. “There was never a threat to anybody in the school or anything like that. It was not that type of situation at all. We just wanted to be cautious and make sure what the reasoning was for why the person came to the campus,” Squier said. In hindsight, Mento said the incident was a useful drill for the police officers involved. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.