BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
The Elmore/Autauga News met with Prattville High School Principal Daniel Farris and Tony Camara, Coordinator of Operations today. The meeting was to clarify why officers with the Prattville Police Department and Autauga County Sheriff’s office left the campus without completing a full search for narcotics and/or weapons Friday morning.
The searches that were completed did uncover a small amount of suspected narcotics, but no weapons.
However, we reported Friday that at some point, an administrator, we can now identify as Principal Daniel Farris, had an issue with the search.
According to Chief Mark Thompson and Autauga County Sheriff Mark Harrell, issues with the search arose when Principal Farris questioned who would be doing the searches, and believed the searches should be done by school staff rather than officers. A K9 had hit on a vehicle, and officers were planning on search the vehicle. Farris told officers he would do the search.
Thompson and Harrell say once the confusion began over who would do the search, they made the decision to leave campus.
Farris is in his second year as Principal at PHS.
“The article I read is not true. So, we just wanted to clarify that, or let you ask questions,” Farris said.
Camara said, “Because there was information in there that, at some point, Mr. Farris as an administrator stopped the search.”
The EAN explained that sources who took part in the search of the school claim they were initially allowed to search specific sections of the school. However, when the search was moved to another area, the searches ceased.
Both Camara and Farris stressed that at no time were officers told to leave campus. Both said they knew of no miscommunication or misunderstanding that would lead to the officers’ departure and assumed the search was simply over.
Chief Thompson said there was miscommunication, and that eventually Farris was told by Supt. Tim Tidmore to allow the searches to continue, but by that point the officers had left.
“Without full cooperation from the school, we both decided to put our officers back in service,” Thompson said. “There was a policy issue over whether we could search, or if an administrator had to search. There was no issue during the first part of the day. But later Farris was under the belief he had to search and we could not search. It was a miscommunication between the administrators. Sheriff Harrell put his units back in service, and then I did the same.”
Thompson said that he told administration that when they addressed their issues, he would discuss future searches.
“Due to their lack of understanding of what we could and couldn’t do all units got back in service. To my understanding, now, that has been corrected at this point. But it was not corrected until after our units had left.”
Thompson said that a meeting held recently between board members, city officials, and law enforcement, concerns were raised over communication concerning criminal incidents at the school.
“I was told we would get 100 percent communication and support moving forward. But while we were there, that was not the case. Before we go back, there will be a written operational plan as to what we will do and any limitations will be documented before we do any more operations.”
Thompson said he is hopeful something good has come out of this situation, and all involved will understand their role moving forward.
Thompson and Harrell both agree the goal is for everyone to work together to make the schools safe for students and staff.
“From my understanding, in the past administrators conducted the searches. We are working to change that so the searches go faster and accurately. So, I think that is where the confusion came from,” Board President Kim Crockett told the EAN. “We are working together with law enforcement to turn those type of things over to law enforcement so they can handle that the right way. We cannot do what we do without law enforcement. I think there was just some confusion, but we will work through that.”
