ANNA — Anna Schools were locked down Tuesday afternoon after an attempted robbery at the IGA Anna Market.
“Law enforcement officials asked us to lock both schools down at about 2:30 p.m.,” said Superintendent Andy Bixler. “We had some groups of students outside at the (Anna) Middle School/High School. The (Anna) Elementary students were in an assembly. We quickly moved the students to their classrooms and remained in place for 70-80 minutes.”
Anna Schools sent out a message via One Call that the schools were locked down at 2:47 p.m. A second notification informed recipients that the school was still on lockdown at 3:26 p.m.
“We were given the all clear to release school at around 3:45,” said Bixler. “We started our dismissal procedures at that point. Students were ultimately delayed about 45 minutes at the end of the delay.
“While we held the students, they remained in classrooms under the supervision of teachers and staff. Classroom activities were at the discretion of our teachers,” he said. “Our dismissal was supervised by law enforcement officials and went very smoothly. Our students, staff and parents were extremely cooperative through this event.”
At 3:56 p.m., parents were informed that students were being released from school.
Anna Police, with assistance from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, are investigating the incident, which happened around 2:14 p.m. K-9 units were brought to the scene to help track the suspect.
Also responding to the scene were Sidney Police, Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Bystanders were told there had been a robbery or attempted robbery at the market.
No other information was available at press time.
