August 7, 2024 • 18 mins
In this episode of Endless Possibilities, we delve into the safety measures in place for the Tipton County School System with a special guest, Tipton County Sheriff Shannon Beasley. Host Phil and Sheriff Beasley, who share a long-standing friendship, discuss the pivotal role of School Resource Officers (SROs) in maintaining a secure environment for students.
Sheriff Beasley outlines his extensive career in law enforcement, starting as a reserve deputy in 1990, and his rise to the position of sheriff. He provides insights into the daily responsibilities of SROs, their interactions with students, and the importance of building trust within the school community.
The conversation also covers the comprehensive safety protocols in place, including active shooter training and the coordination between various agencies during emergency situations. Sheriff Beasley emphasizes the collaborative efforts between law enforcement and the school system to ensure the safety and well-being of children in Tipton County.
Tune in to learn more about how Tipton County is proactively addressing school safety concerns and the importance of community trust and cooperation in creating a secure educational environment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:27):
Welcome to another edition of Endless Possibilities, where we speak about everything
Tipton County School System.
I have a special guest today, one that I've known for quite some time.
We have the Tipton County Sheriff, Shannon Beasley, here with us today.
Shannon, it's good to have you here.
Good morning, Phil. Thank you for having me. We go back a long way.
(00:49):
Several years. There are certain things we will not say on this radio, correct? Absolutely.
Well, Shannon, let's find out. You're the sheriff and let's find out a little
bit about you before I got some questions that I want to ask you.
And I'm sure the people would like to know what we're going to talk about.
And it's all about safety and children.
So that's the number one issue with people. And if you have children,
(01:11):
and I know you do, we want our kids to be safe. So we're going to talk about that today.
Like I said, we grew up together and you're a product of Covington High School.
You graduated there. That's correct.
And you have a very long career in law enforcement. So did you go to college
right out of high school?
Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into law enforcement.
(01:33):
I did. I went to Dyersburg State, where I attained an associate degree there at Dyersburg State.
And I actually graduated while I was working for the sheriff's office there.
I started as a reserve deputy in the very first,
organized reserve deputy program that Sheriff Buddy Lewis at the time started
(01:53):
in November of 1990 and I stayed a reserve until I was hired full-time in August of 91.
And so you were hired full-time. So you've been in law enforcement for approximately 34 years.
That's right. And just kind of climbed the ranks a little bit.
And then you had an opportunity to run for sheriff. Our sheriff was retiring.
(02:15):
Did you have anybody running against you? I don't think you had anybody running
against you. No, thankfully I was unopposed. I thought about it.
Well, and I would have been worried.
So how long have you been sheriff? I've been sheriff for three years now.
Do you enjoy it? I do. I absolutely do. that, you know, there's other than more
political things to do. The job is not really any different.
(02:35):
I mean, it's, uh, I've done the job for, like you said, 34 years.
So the day-to-day operations are, you know, just a, a continuous of where Sheriff
Poncho Cholme left off. Yeah.
All right. Let's talk about safety in our children.
You know, we do live in a different time. You know, when we graduated, I graduated in 1986.
When did you graduate? 89. 89.
(02:56):
And time is a little different than it was back in the day.
And it has become a lot more dangerous. So a big concern if you have children is safety.
And I know in our schools in Tipton County, in Covington, Brighton,
Munford, Atoka, in every school, we have a police officer and it's called an SRO officer.
(03:19):
Basically, what does SRO stand for? School Resource Officer.
So each school has an officer in the school. That's correct.
Can you tell me a little bit about what that officer's day would look like?
So each one of those officers at all the schools across the county are required
to be at the school when the students start arriving for the day.
(03:43):
You'll see a lot of times, I'm sure the parents see the school resource officers
out front every morning.
And, you know, although they may help with the flow of traffic,
the traffic flow is not really a part of that officer's job. Thank you.
That officer's job is to make sure that child gets out of that vehicle safely
and enters the school safely.
Can I interject something and you pick up that train of thought there?
(04:07):
It's not their job, but I guarantee you this, when you see an officer,
if you are speeding, you do slow down.
Yes. Yeah. They will get your attention. That's for sure. And I say it's not their job.
It is their job. If they see something that is dangerous, that someone is driving
in the line, you know, recklessly or something like that, they will.
They have absolutely stopped people there in the line and pulled them out of
(04:30):
the line before and spoken with those parents or guardians or whoever dropping that child off.
So even though it's not really part of, they do have to watch that.
But their main concern is watching that child get out of the car,
making sure the child gets into the school safely and doesn't get run over.
And once they're in the school safely, then it's their foremost responsibility
(04:52):
to make sure that child stays safe throughout the day.
And what would that look like? So the officer is in the school.
What would he do during the day to make sure that takes place?
So each one of the officers are going to, in between periods,
they're tasked with going around making sure all the exterior doors are shut and secured properly.
(05:13):
And throughout the school day, they do many other things besides that.
A lot of times they're asked to come to the classroom by certain teachers and
ask them to speak to the children on various different topics.
Many times other personnel from the sheriff's office, I've been to the school
systems many times myself and spoken to the kids.
But these SROs also do that same thing. And they'll go in through the classroom
(05:37):
for a few minutes and speak to them.
But, you know, they also understand that their job is to walk that school and
make sure that those doors are secure,
that the people who may be roaming the halls are supposed to be there and,
you know, help make sure the front office stays safe and they're letting the proper people in.
Yeah, I've been, like I said, I'm in the schools every week doing different projects.
(05:58):
And it's really, it's comforting because just about every time I've been at
a school, I've seen an officer walking down the hallway.
Right. And another thing that I like too is the officer knows the kids and has
a rapport with the kids, which is, which is huge.
If there becomes a trust thing there, you know, there, a lot of times they're.
(06:19):
Law enforcement is not trusted by a lot of children, kids nowadays,
just kind of where society is.
But those officers being in those school systems, those kids are around that officer all the time.
They see how he or she interacts with them and they build that trust with them.
And so, you know, many times, thankfully, it's very few times,
(06:39):
but many times these same children are willing to go speak with those officers
if they know someone does have a gun or poses a threat inside the school.
And you just can't walk into a school these days at the door.
I think there's a process to actually get in the school. What is that process?
It is. Each one of the schools are now equipped with cameras and a buzzer system
(07:01):
where the guest has to buzz into the school, speak, and say what they're there for.
They then come into the front office and are met
right there and typically the way the schools are laid out is
those people unless they
come in and and and god forbid started shooting or
something they wouldn't be able to get past that front office unless
(07:22):
they you know took out the front office staff so that's where our officers
also try to come in and stay at that front door because
they know that's where most people are going to come in once they secure those
doors on the exterior around the school they'll report
they'll walk the hallways but they'll report back to the the front office as well
all right so that's during a school day of
course school starting back and sports are
(07:43):
in this county i know are huge especially
football season we have thousands of people come
out to the football games and you've got soccer and
volleyball and basketball what what does an uh does an sro officer is does his
job cover those sporting events also what do y'all do as a law enforcement agency
(08:08):
to secure people at sporting events?
Because that's a good chance for somebody to act up if they wanted to.
Yeah, when you have that many people there. You know, so the elementary schools
don't really have sporting programs that.
We have a group thread of all school resource officers and command staff for
(08:29):
each department, which also includes Dr.
Combs and his staff. Those school resource officers use this thread to push
out information and just basically say, hey, we've got a big game coming up
this weekend. I need four or five more officers.
So if those SROs from the other schools are not covering another event,
(08:49):
they'll go to another school to help them cover that event.
You know, you take a Covington-Munford, Covington-Brighton, Brighton-Munford
games. Those are all big rival, in-county rival games. So it's going to draw a big crowd.
So they're always going to be ready for that. But you've also got like the M&M
Bowl with Mumford and Millington.
It always draws a big crowd as well that doesn't, you know, maybe Covington
(09:11):
or Brighton has an off week.
And those SROs will help come to Munford and help them cover that event.
So they work together. They work well together.
And we also will pull overtime officers in if we need to.
And those officers that are working the streets in those districts that day
will also stop by that event and just show a large presence and try to make everybody feel secure.
(09:36):
And Tennessee is a right-to-carry state right now, which means you can carry a firearm.
Right. What is the policy with a firearm on grounds where a sporting event and
the schools and sporting events can?
If you have a gun and it's concealed, are you able to bring that into anything
(09:56):
at a sporting event or anything associated with the school?
Absolutely not. No, you cannot bring a firearm into the school itself, not into a school event.
And I will go a little bit further with that field is if, for instance,
maybe the Covenant High School softball program had to use the softball fields
(10:19):
on Mueller Brass, which are not school property.
But if that school event moves to Mueller Brass Road, to those softball fields,
then that becomes a school event, which means you also cannot carry a firearm there.
So it's also not just on school grounds. It will follow that event where that event goes.
So people need to know that as well. Just because you have a permit or a right
(10:42):
to carry, you do not have a right to carry at that event.
If you found out that somebody did have a firearm on the ground,
what would you do to that person? and what's the procedure?
The first thing to do is try to remove that person as quietly and safely as
possible away from the group of people as efficiently as you can and quickly as you can.
(11:05):
Get that person and get the weapon off of them.
That person would then be arrested and charged with the unlawful carry,
and the firearm would be seized by that agency.
Pretty serious. It is pretty serious. You know, that's one.
Good people carry firearms, but if you carry a firearm into that event,
(11:26):
man, that's not going to look good for you on your record, you know?
No, no, no. That's not a good look. And, you know, even good people carrying
firearms, you know, we're, I think, pro-Second Amendment.
I understand that. But you also understand what the law is. And good people
sometimes get mixed up, but, you know, there's been many people go through the
airport and have a gun found in their luggage that they left in there too.
(11:50):
But, you know, people just have to be mindful that you cannot carry at a school event.
If you had an active shooter, what would y'all do? Do y'all have a plan in place
if an active shooter shows up? How do y'all work together?
Well, it's funny you mentioned that, Phil. just as of yesterday the sheriff's
office patrol division and their detective divisions,
(12:13):
did active shooter training at austin p elementary school and
we do that throughout the year we do that every year we
do active shooter training and basically the training
that they went through yesterday was the response to an active
shooter and and what you do and how you quickly
get in and you know we learned from columbine years
ago you don't wait for swat you don't have time to wait these officers now are
(12:36):
tasked with going straight into the school system at all costs it doesn't matter
how you have to get in the school system you get in there and you stop the shooter
so we went through that training just yesterday that was yesterday afternoon
yesterday morning just by chance.
For the last probably four months, we've been working with the Covenant Police
Department, Covenant Fire Department, Board of Education, EMA,
(13:00):
and Baptist Hospital and Ambulance.
We've been putting a roundtable scenario together for such an event,
outside event, not something that's in the school.
But we started this, like I say, months ago. And as of yesterday morning,
all those people came together and brought in what their resources are,
(13:21):
what the event would look like, what roads would be shut down,
what's going to be used for an emergency route, where the helicopter, the wing can land,
how we're going to know where each victim would go, what hospital.
They may not all go to Baptist Tipton.
Baptist Tipton is very well prepared for that. The tornado was one such incident
(13:44):
where they had a lot of casualties coming in.
And so the Baptist Tipton is prepared for that, but they may go to Jackson General,
they may go to Dyersburg, Methodist North.
But we also have a system there that will tell us where those patients are being taken.
So it's funny that you brought that up because we just went through that yesterday,
as a matter of fact, and laid out what that's going to look like for us and
(14:09):
what the chaos that is going to bring something even outside the school at like a a sporting event.
I want to ask you one more question. There's a lot of things.
It sounds like y'all have everything under control and a system in place,
but I know one thing that Shannon Beasley cannot control.
You're a good man. You just can't control the weather.
(14:30):
I know a few years ago, I drive a school bus, by the way, and this was not in
the forecast at all, but right around Around bus time, it was raining,
but all of a sudden it turned into ice.
And within 20 minutes, there was a half inch of ice on the road.
You just can't prepare for something like that. That's right.
(14:52):
So weather is a big deal, especially around here. We live in an area where it can change quickly.
Do y'all work with a school system when weather issues arise?
How do y'all interact with the school?
You know, Phil, we're very blessed. there are a lot of, I hear other places
across the state that don't have a good relationship maybe with their school
(15:13):
system, with law enforcement and stuff, and we are very blessed.
We do, and by us being blessed with having a good relationship with Dr.
Combs and his staff, that makes the citizens of Tipton County be blessed as well.
So when weather, when we know that inclement weather is coming in.
Whether it's going to be snow and ice, tornadic activity, things of that nature.
(15:36):
We typically are on the phone days in advance with Dr.
Combs, Baker McCool at the Emergency Management Building Agency down in Brighton.
We start watching these events. And the closer you get, the better the meteorologist
can narrow down about how impactful that storm or whatever type of storm is
(15:58):
going to be. and feel many times Dr.
Combs takes so many kicks from both sides of different parents,
whether you shouldn't have let the kids out early, they should have stayed in
school, or why are you taking them out?
I mean, you know, no, you should be taking them out, you know,
so he's got a tough job when it comes to that. But let me say this, we do work well with Dr.
(16:19):
Combs. Ultimately, it is his decision, but he does go off of what But we are
able to provide him and his staff as to what we think the weather would be doing.
And Phil, none other than March 31st of last year, when the tornado hit Covington,
we had been on the phone with Dr.
Combs for days in advance and was watching this. And the closer it got,
(16:43):
man, the worse, we could see that the worst of that cell was probably going
to hit somewhere in this area here.
So we knew there was a high chance of tornadoes in this area.
And he made that call and thankfully he did.
You know, both the Crestview schools were demolished that day.
Many, many buildings and residents were demolished that day,
(17:05):
but I just, I can't help but think of the children that, had he not made that
call, that would have been there in the after-school programs,
that could have very well lost their lives.
So that was, that's just a good instance, as bad as it was, of how we work well
with our Board of Education, Dr.
Combs and his staff, and relaying that information. and
(17:25):
and and phil we've many times we like with
ice and snow and stuff we will meet at the ema building
in brighton and start look
we meet with utility workers we meet
with all different law enforcement agencies when you know it's going to be a
wide thing like ice and stuff like that so we have days in advance we'll start
having meetings at the ema building preparing for that and what we need to do
(17:47):
and what it's going to look like well shannon i'm i'm glad you took time out
of your You're scheduled to come today as a, as a parent.
And I think the parents should know this that are listening there.
There is a plan in place for really every scenario that would happen in our school system.
And I hope that the parents, at least if you listen to this podcast can,
(18:07):
can rest and know that, that we've gone far and beyond the call of duty to make
sure that your kids are safe at school.
So, and it takes, as you've laid out today, it's, It takes a team,
and it's good to see how law enforcement and our school system and staff all
work together to make sure that our kids are safe.
(18:29):
So thank you for coming by today. Thank you, Phil. I appreciate you having me.
We'll see you next week for another edition.
Music.
Music.
(00:27):
Welcome to another edition of Endless Possibilities, where we speak about everything
Tipton County School System.
I have a special guest today, one that I've known for quite some time.
We have the Tipton County Sheriff, Shannon Beasley, here with us today.
Shannon, it's good to have you here.
Good morning, Phil. Thank you for having me. We go back a long way.
(00:49):
Several years. There are certain things we will not say on this radio, correct? Absolutely.
Well, Shannon, let's find out. You're the sheriff and let's find out a little
bit about you before I got some questions that I want to ask you.
And I'm sure the people would like to know what we're going to talk about.
And it's all about safety and children.
So that's the number one issue with people. And if you have children,
(01:11):
and I know you do, we want our kids to be safe. So we're going to talk about that today.
Like I said, we grew up together and you're a product of Covington High School.
You graduated there. That's correct.
And you have a very long career in law enforcement. So did you go to college
right out of high school?
Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into law enforcement.
(01:33):
I did. I went to Dyersburg State, where I attained an associate degree there at Dyersburg State.
And I actually graduated while I was working for the sheriff's office there.
I started as a reserve deputy in the very first,
organized reserve deputy program that Sheriff Buddy Lewis at the time started
(01:53):
in November of 1990 and I stayed a reserve until I was hired full-time in August of 91.
And so you were hired full-time. So you've been in law enforcement for approximately 34 years.
That's right. And just kind of climbed the ranks a little bit.
And then you had an opportunity to run for sheriff. Our sheriff was retiring.
(02:15):
Did you have anybody running against you? I don't think you had anybody running
against you. No, thankfully I was unopposed. I thought about it.
Well, and I would have been worried.
So how long have you been sheriff? I've been sheriff for three years now.
Do you enjoy it? I do. I absolutely do. that, you know, there's other than more
political things to do. The job is not really any different.
(02:35):
I mean, it's, uh, I've done the job for, like you said, 34 years.
So the day-to-day operations are, you know, just a, a continuous of where Sheriff
Poncho Cholme left off. Yeah.
All right. Let's talk about safety in our children.
You know, we do live in a different time. You know, when we graduated, I graduated in 1986.
When did you graduate? 89. 89.
(02:56):
And time is a little different than it was back in the day.
And it has become a lot more dangerous. So a big concern if you have children is safety.
And I know in our schools in Tipton County, in Covington, Brighton,
Munford, Atoka, in every school, we have a police officer and it's called an SRO officer.
(03:19):
Basically, what does SRO stand for? School Resource Officer.
So each school has an officer in the school. That's correct.
Can you tell me a little bit about what that officer's day would look like?
So each one of those officers at all the schools across the county are required
to be at the school when the students start arriving for the day.
(03:43):
You'll see a lot of times, I'm sure the parents see the school resource officers
out front every morning.
And, you know, although they may help with the flow of traffic,
the traffic flow is not really a part of that officer's job. Thank you.
That officer's job is to make sure that child gets out of that vehicle safely
and enters the school safely.
Can I interject something and you pick up that train of thought there?
(04:07):
It's not their job, but I guarantee you this, when you see an officer,
if you are speeding, you do slow down.
Yes. Yeah. They will get your attention. That's for sure. And I say it's not their job.
It is their job. If they see something that is dangerous, that someone is driving
in the line, you know, recklessly or something like that, they will.
They have absolutely stopped people there in the line and pulled them out of
(04:30):
the line before and spoken with those parents or guardians or whoever dropping that child off.
So even though it's not really part of, they do have to watch that.
But their main concern is watching that child get out of the car,
making sure the child gets into the school safely and doesn't get run over.
And once they're in the school safely, then it's their foremost responsibility
(04:52):
to make sure that child stays safe throughout the day.
And what would that look like? So the officer is in the school.
What would he do during the day to make sure that takes place?
So each one of the officers are going to, in between periods,
they're tasked with going around making sure all the exterior doors are shut and secured properly.
(05:13):
And throughout the school day, they do many other things besides that.
A lot of times they're asked to come to the classroom by certain teachers and
ask them to speak to the children on various different topics.
Many times other personnel from the sheriff's office, I've been to the school
systems many times myself and spoken to the kids.
But these SROs also do that same thing. And they'll go in through the classroom
(05:37):
for a few minutes and speak to them.
But, you know, they also understand that their job is to walk that school and
make sure that those doors are secure,
that the people who may be roaming the halls are supposed to be there and,
you know, help make sure the front office stays safe and they're letting the proper people in.
Yeah, I've been, like I said, I'm in the schools every week doing different projects.
(05:58):
And it's really, it's comforting because just about every time I've been at
a school, I've seen an officer walking down the hallway.
Right. And another thing that I like too is the officer knows the kids and has
a rapport with the kids, which is, which is huge.
If there becomes a trust thing there, you know, there, a lot of times they're.
(06:19):
Law enforcement is not trusted by a lot of children, kids nowadays,
just kind of where society is.
But those officers being in those school systems, those kids are around that officer all the time.
They see how he or she interacts with them and they build that trust with them.
And so, you know, many times, thankfully, it's very few times,
(06:39):
but many times these same children are willing to go speak with those officers
if they know someone does have a gun or poses a threat inside the school.
And you just can't walk into a school these days at the door.
I think there's a process to actually get in the school. What is that process?
It is. Each one of the schools are now equipped with cameras and a buzzer system
(07:01):
where the guest has to buzz into the school, speak, and say what they're there for.
They then come into the front office and are met
right there and typically the way the schools are laid out is
those people unless they
come in and and and god forbid started shooting or
something they wouldn't be able to get past that front office unless
(07:22):
they you know took out the front office staff so that's where our officers
also try to come in and stay at that front door because
they know that's where most people are going to come in once they secure those
doors on the exterior around the school they'll report
they'll walk the hallways but they'll report back to the the front office as well
all right so that's during a school day of
course school starting back and sports are
(07:43):
in this county i know are huge especially
football season we have thousands of people come
out to the football games and you've got soccer and
volleyball and basketball what what does an uh does an sro officer is does his
job cover those sporting events also what do y'all do as a law enforcement agency
(08:08):
to secure people at sporting events?
Because that's a good chance for somebody to act up if they wanted to.
Yeah, when you have that many people there. You know, so the elementary schools
don't really have sporting programs that.
We have a group thread of all school resource officers and command staff for
(08:29):
each department, which also includes Dr.
Combs and his staff. Those school resource officers use this thread to push
out information and just basically say, hey, we've got a big game coming up
this weekend. I need four or five more officers.
So if those SROs from the other schools are not covering another event,
(08:49):
they'll go to another school to help them cover that event.
You know, you take a Covington-Munford, Covington-Brighton, Brighton-Munford
games. Those are all big rival, in-county rival games. So it's going to draw a big crowd.
So they're always going to be ready for that. But you've also got like the M&M
Bowl with Mumford and Millington.
It always draws a big crowd as well that doesn't, you know, maybe Covington
(09:11):
or Brighton has an off week.
And those SROs will help come to Munford and help them cover that event.
So they work together. They work well together.
And we also will pull overtime officers in if we need to.
And those officers that are working the streets in those districts that day
will also stop by that event and just show a large presence and try to make everybody feel secure.
(09:36):
And Tennessee is a right-to-carry state right now, which means you can carry a firearm.
Right. What is the policy with a firearm on grounds where a sporting event and
the schools and sporting events can?
If you have a gun and it's concealed, are you able to bring that into anything
(09:56):
at a sporting event or anything associated with the school?
Absolutely not. No, you cannot bring a firearm into the school itself, not into a school event.
And I will go a little bit further with that field is if, for instance,
maybe the Covenant High School softball program had to use the softball fields
(10:19):
on Mueller Brass, which are not school property.
But if that school event moves to Mueller Brass Road, to those softball fields,
then that becomes a school event, which means you also cannot carry a firearm there.
So it's also not just on school grounds. It will follow that event where that event goes.
So people need to know that as well. Just because you have a permit or a right
(10:42):
to carry, you do not have a right to carry at that event.
If you found out that somebody did have a firearm on the ground,
what would you do to that person? and what's the procedure?
The first thing to do is try to remove that person as quietly and safely as
possible away from the group of people as efficiently as you can and quickly as you can.
(11:05):
Get that person and get the weapon off of them.
That person would then be arrested and charged with the unlawful carry,
and the firearm would be seized by that agency.
Pretty serious. It is pretty serious. You know, that's one.
Good people carry firearms, but if you carry a firearm into that event,
(11:26):
man, that's not going to look good for you on your record, you know?
No, no, no. That's not a good look. And, you know, even good people carrying
firearms, you know, we're, I think, pro-Second Amendment.
I understand that. But you also understand what the law is. And good people
sometimes get mixed up, but, you know, there's been many people go through the
airport and have a gun found in their luggage that they left in there too.
(11:50):
But, you know, people just have to be mindful that you cannot carry at a school event.
If you had an active shooter, what would y'all do? Do y'all have a plan in place
if an active shooter shows up? How do y'all work together?
Well, it's funny you mentioned that, Phil. just as of yesterday the sheriff's
office patrol division and their detective divisions,
(12:13):
did active shooter training at austin p elementary school and
we do that throughout the year we do that every year we
do active shooter training and basically the training
that they went through yesterday was the response to an active
shooter and and what you do and how you quickly
get in and you know we learned from columbine years
ago you don't wait for swat you don't have time to wait these officers now are
(12:36):
tasked with going straight into the school system at all costs it doesn't matter
how you have to get in the school system you get in there and you stop the shooter
so we went through that training just yesterday that was yesterday afternoon
yesterday morning just by chance.
For the last probably four months, we've been working with the Covenant Police
Department, Covenant Fire Department, Board of Education, EMA,
(13:00):
and Baptist Hospital and Ambulance.
We've been putting a roundtable scenario together for such an event,
outside event, not something that's in the school.
But we started this, like I say, months ago. And as of yesterday morning,
all those people came together and brought in what their resources are,
(13:21):
what the event would look like, what roads would be shut down,
what's going to be used for an emergency route, where the helicopter, the wing can land,
how we're going to know where each victim would go, what hospital.
They may not all go to Baptist Tipton.
Baptist Tipton is very well prepared for that. The tornado was one such incident
(13:44):
where they had a lot of casualties coming in.
And so the Baptist Tipton is prepared for that, but they may go to Jackson General,
they may go to Dyersburg, Methodist North.
But we also have a system there that will tell us where those patients are being taken.
So it's funny that you brought that up because we just went through that yesterday,
as a matter of fact, and laid out what that's going to look like for us and
(14:09):
what the chaos that is going to bring something even outside the school at like a a sporting event.
I want to ask you one more question. There's a lot of things.
It sounds like y'all have everything under control and a system in place,
but I know one thing that Shannon Beasley cannot control.
You're a good man. You just can't control the weather.
(14:30):
I know a few years ago, I drive a school bus, by the way, and this was not in
the forecast at all, but right around Around bus time, it was raining,
but all of a sudden it turned into ice.
And within 20 minutes, there was a half inch of ice on the road.
You just can't prepare for something like that. That's right.
(14:52):
So weather is a big deal, especially around here. We live in an area where it can change quickly.
Do y'all work with a school system when weather issues arise?
How do y'all interact with the school?
You know, Phil, we're very blessed. there are a lot of, I hear other places
across the state that don't have a good relationship maybe with their school
(15:13):
system, with law enforcement and stuff, and we are very blessed.
We do, and by us being blessed with having a good relationship with Dr.
Combs and his staff, that makes the citizens of Tipton County be blessed as well.
So when weather, when we know that inclement weather is coming in.
Whether it's going to be snow and ice, tornadic activity, things of that nature.
(15:36):
We typically are on the phone days in advance with Dr.
Combs, Baker McCool at the Emergency Management Building Agency down in Brighton.
We start watching these events. And the closer you get, the better the meteorologist
can narrow down about how impactful that storm or whatever type of storm is
(15:58):
going to be. and feel many times Dr.
Combs takes so many kicks from both sides of different parents,
whether you shouldn't have let the kids out early, they should have stayed in
school, or why are you taking them out?
I mean, you know, no, you should be taking them out, you know,
so he's got a tough job when it comes to that. But let me say this, we do work well with Dr.
(16:19):
Combs. Ultimately, it is his decision, but he does go off of what But we are
able to provide him and his staff as to what we think the weather would be doing.
And Phil, none other than March 31st of last year, when the tornado hit Covington,
we had been on the phone with Dr.
Combs for days in advance and was watching this. And the closer it got,
(16:43):
man, the worse, we could see that the worst of that cell was probably going
to hit somewhere in this area here.
So we knew there was a high chance of tornadoes in this area.
And he made that call and thankfully he did.
You know, both the Crestview schools were demolished that day.
Many, many buildings and residents were demolished that day,
(17:05):
but I just, I can't help but think of the children that, had he not made that
call, that would have been there in the after-school programs,
that could have very well lost their lives.
So that was, that's just a good instance, as bad as it was, of how we work well
with our Board of Education, Dr.
Combs and his staff, and relaying that information. and
(17:25):
and and phil we've many times we like with
ice and snow and stuff we will meet at the ema building
in brighton and start look
we meet with utility workers we meet
with all different law enforcement agencies when you know it's going to be a
wide thing like ice and stuff like that so we have days in advance we'll start
having meetings at the ema building preparing for that and what we need to do
(17:47):
and what it's going to look like well shannon i'm i'm glad you took time out
of your You're scheduled to come today as a, as a parent.
And I think the parents should know this that are listening there.
There is a plan in place for really every scenario that would happen in our school system.
And I hope that the parents, at least if you listen to this podcast can,
(18:07):
can rest and know that, that we've gone far and beyond the call of duty to make
sure that your kids are safe at school.
So, and it takes, as you've laid out today, it's, It takes a team,
and it's good to see how law enforcement and our school system and staff all
work together to make sure that our kids are safe.
(18:29):
So thank you for coming by today. Thank you, Phil. I appreciate you having me.
We'll see you next week for another edition.
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