Alex Paul
?Do we get hazard pay for this??
Brief smiles broke on the faces of those clustered near the front door of Foster Elementary School Thursday afternoon after a staff member broke a tense silence with a joke.
The usually peaceful school had already been under a lock down process for about two hours. Instead of boistrous laughter or the sounds of learning underway on a typical nearly spring school day, youngsters and staff members were being guarded from threats of suicide allegedly made by a nearby resident.
All involved would agree it was not what they had expected upon reporting for work.
Approximately 10 a.m., a domestic disturbance between Jason Kibbey Cripe, 30, of Lebanon and his fiancee? Melissa Linday, 27, erupted to the point that the Sweet Home Police were summoned to their apartment approximately one block west of the school.
When they arrived, Linday informed officers that Cripe had fled the scene and was possibly armed with a knife. She alleged that he was making threats of committing suicide within the presence of school children.
Officers notified the school district and began searching for Cripe, who has an outstanding warrant for PCS (Possession of a Controlled Substance).
Police Chief Bob Burford said that no children were ever in direct danger but that due to the nature of the alleged threats, the lock down procedure seemed prudent.
School Supt. Dr. Larry Horton was attending the Oak Heights Elementary operetta when he was made aware of the incident. He rushed to the school and remained there throughout the day. Dr. Horton also returned to the school for a couple hours Friday morning.
?After our debriefing, there were a few things we would have done differently,? Dr. Horton said. ?But overall, any glitches were minor. Our staff were all professionals. They were competent and handled the situation sensitively. They did a great job in a very difficult situation.?
Dr. Horton commended Principal Gloria Mittleman and her staff.
?Gloria prepared a letter to send home with each child to help inform parents,? Dr. Horton said.
During the lock down, students remained in their rooms and unnecessary lights were turned off. No child was allowed to leave the building without being released to a parent and all teachers who left the building did so in groups of at least two.
Children were also escorted to bathroom breaks.
Teachers and their assistants did their best to ease a tense situation for the youngsters. They read books, tried to go on with their daily routine or watched videos.
The cafeteria crew, headed up by Pam Lessley, helped ease a bad situation by putting food on a rolling cart and going from room to room during the lunch period.
Outlying schools were also impacted by the event, since all of the district lunches are being prepared out of the Foster kitchen due to remodeling at the high school.
?Some of the kids at other schools had cereal and milk,? supervisor Lessley said of the process.
When it came time for students to be released from the school, teachers and aides gathered them together inside the building, grouping them by bus routes.
As each bus pulled to the front of the building, staff members and teachers escorted the students from the front door to the bus and remained with the bus until all of its students were on board.
Then, the next bus and route were moved forward and the process repeated.
Students who usually walk home, approximately 35, were gathered together and released to parents or guardians.
Dr. Horton praised the Sweet Home Police Department for their efforts to secure the building.
?The amount of coverage was excellent,? he said. ?There were four or five police officers either at the building or in cars in the area.?
Dr. Horton also thanked parents for their cooperation.
?It would have been very understandable for parents to panic when they realized their child was in potential harm?s way,? he said. ?We actually had a couple calls last night saying how much they appreciated how the incident was handled.?
Police Chief Burford said the school district and police department have had a working lock down plan in place for several years.
?Dr. Horton and I had talked about getting together to review the plan earlier in the year,? Chief Burford said. ?We were very pleased with the way the staff implemented the plan and how professional everyone was.?
Chief Burford said Ms. Linday had been moved from her apartment to a nearby apartment after the incident and reportedly left the building and spoke with Cripe.
She reportedly has a school-age child that attends Foster School.
School Principal Gloria Mittleman said it was gratifying to see the plan worked.
?You put such a plan in place, you trust it will work and when it does, it?s reaffirming,? she said. ?Everyone stepped up to the plate. It was good to have the superintendent on site. I was proud of our students and staff and volunteers who helped out.?
She especially praised Leree Frick and Trisha Conn, office staff, who dealt with the public picking up children and answered calls from parents.
?They did an outstanding job on the phones,? Mittleman said. ?I went home emotionally drained but thankful for such a fine staff.?
Police Chief Burford told The New Era Monday morning that sometime during Thursday night, Cripe climbed the water tower at the Willamette Industries (Weyerhaeuser) mill off 19th.
There, he spraypainted a sign saying, ?I love Melissa.?
Also during the night, Cripe returned to his fiancee?s apartment (she was staying at another site) and left a message in a bottle, telling her to look up at the water tower to retrieve his message.
But it was the Lebanon Police Department that came up with the suspect, after he led them on a high-speed chase in a stolen van on Friday.
Shortly after 2 p.m. Friday, a Lebanon police sergeant attempted to pull over a blue van in that community.
The driver eluded the officer and the ensuing pursuit later included numerous Lebanon officers as well as deputies from the Linn County Sheriff?s Department.
Spike strips eventually flattened the vehicle?s tires and it came to a stop on Weirich Drive. Cripe and a female passenger fled into a wooded area where they were found by officers.
The van Cripe was driving had been stolen in Sweet Home.
Chief Burford said Cripe faces numerous charges in Lebanon including unlawful use of a motor vehicle and theft of license plates (switched on the vehicle) and SHPD will charge him with criminal trespass and criminal mischief (water tower painting).