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Officials examine security procedures after Wheelersburg incident

Wheelersburg School officials are reviewing their security procedures after reporting a man, wearing a bra over a T-shirt, entered Wheelersburg High School Thursday, and encountered two sophomore girls.

"We reviewed our security procedures to see that our students are safe and secure," said Wheelersburg Schools superintendent Mark Knapp.

Knapp said the school had an unknown intruder come in sometime in the early afternoon.

"We have submitted a sheriff's report and checked our security cameras, and turned the videos over to them," he said.

Scioto County Sheriff's Office chief deputy Todd Miller verified the call.

"Deputy Jamie Conley was sent up in response to a complaint that an unknown male subject was in the school," Miller said. "He was gone when Conley got there, but we are in the process of reviewing the video to determine the intruder's identification."

Miller said the investigation continued through the day on Friday.

"Conley and Detective Matt Spencer are up there looking at surveillance tapes and talking with area people around the construction site to see if anyone saw anything," he said.

Calls to the Portsmouth Daily Times from several parents at first said the man had exposed himself to the girls who were in the hall taking a make-up test, but Knapp said that did not happen.

"It is true that he was, as the girls said, wearing a woman's bra over top of a T-shirt, but he did not expose himself," he said. "I don't know how to say this any other way than to say there was no skin showing, as he was wearing the bra over a T-shirt."

Knapp said by the description the girls gave authorities, the man in question was young, but not a teenager - probably in his early 20s.

"He found a door with an automatic handicapped device that allows the door to be opened. He encountered the girls, spoke to them, and passed through and went out another door," he said.

One of the parents reporting the incident said she most was concerned an intruder could come in and grab one of the girls, and take them out the door.

Knapp summed up his reaction after spending the day reviewing safety procedures and viewing surveillance video.

"Thank goodness it wasn't anything more serious," he said.

FRANK LEWIS can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232.