A group of federal and Albemarle County police officers conducted an explosives detection training exercise at Albemarle High School’s practice fields Tuesday morning — without notifying the school division.
Four police vehicles, including two from the Department of Homeland Security, parked near the Boys and Girls Club, which sits between Journey Middle School and Albemarle High School, according to a statement sent to parents from the principals at the high school, middle school and nearby Greer Elementary School.
“After promptly investigating, we learned that local law enforcement had chosen to conduct a training exercise with their dogs on the Albemarle High School practice field,” the statement reads. “This decision was made without any notification to or permission from our school division.”
The unexplained presence of Homeland Security officers terrified some students.
“I had students come into morning class and just tell me, ‘I need to go, my brother is going to pick me up, ICE is here,'” an Albemarle High School teacher told Charlottesville Tomorrow. The teacher spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared adverse treatment from administrators for speaking out.
The teacher said that many students quickly left campus, some escorted by teachers and counselors.
“We didn’t know anything official until 3:20 p.m. when we got an email from the principals,” the teacher said. “There wasn’t ever an announcement that it was happening. But the kids knew. The whole day, kids were talking, kids were trying to get picked up.”
The officers were at the school practice fields for roughly an hour Tuesday morning, participating in a monthly training exercise with their police dogs, said Logan Bogert, a spokesperson for the Albemarle County Police Department.
The officers are part of a peer group of K-9 handlers from various local, state and federal agencies, Bogert said. Participation in the group is not mandated by any agency. While the group’s training activities are sanctioned by their respective agencies, it is often up to the officers to arrange particular training sessions.
It’s unclear which agencies were involved in this particular training, aside from one Albemarle County Police officer and the Homeland Security officers seen by school division staff. Bogert did not immediately respond to a request for this information Tuesday afternoon.
Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Bogert said that the officers “have ongoing working relationships specifically for the purpose of their respective K-9 disciplines. Given the limited number of officers within K9 units and the fact that they are sometimes the only one of their specialty in their own department, these relationships and time spent together are crucial to ensure appropriate levels of training and preparedness.”
The regular group training is also helpful because officers with police dogs often assist each other in incidents across the state, Logan added.
The training exercises take place in multiple jurisdictions, and are coordinated by the officers who are available each month.
The group has trained at the Albemarle High School practice fields “on numerous occasions,” Bogert said.
It’s unclear whether the officers needed permission to use the field. Bogert said she would provide that information as quickly as possible.
“But yesterday it was without notification or permission from the school division,” she said. “So Chief (Sean) Reeves did talk to the canine unit to make sure that doesn’t happen again in the future.”
