Pocatello elementary school briefly placed on reverse evacuation due to police matter - East Idaho News
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Pocatello elementary school briefly placed on reverse evacuation due to police matter

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POCATELLO — Students at a Pocatello elementary school were placed in a “reverse evacuation” Monday morning for a short time due to a police matter in the area.

All students, faculty and staff at Edahow Elementary School were placed on reverse evacuation and hall check, two levels of the Idaho Standard Command Responses for Schools, following a recommendation from Pocatello police.

“It didn’t have anything to do with the school directly,” Pocatello/Chubbuck School District spokeswoman Courtney Fisher told EastIdahoNews.com in a phone call. “(The reverse evacuation) was just in an abundance of caution.”

school emergency poster
Courtesy image

At no point during the brief response was anyone at the school in harm’s way, according to Fisher.

“The issue has been resolved, and all students were safe the entire time,” she added. “It wasn’t very long — less than 30 minutes.”

The school district’s alert to parents was delayed due to issues with phone service throughout the district, Fisher said. The call from Pocatello Police went directly to the school and was relayed to the district in person by a school resource officer.

“We have a great relationship with our law enforcement,” Fisher said. “This happens very frequently, where there is something happening in the neighborhood, and out of caution they make recommendations to us to keep kids extra safe.”

Fisher could not provide information regarding the police matter that caused the school response, and Pocatello Police have not released information on the incident either. We will update this story with more details as they become available.

As for the phone service, Fisher is unsure when phones will be operating correctly.

“We’re having an issue on the provider end. It’s not on our end. We are working with them to resolve (the issue),” she said.

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