Dobyns-Bennett locked down for around 16 minutes Monday

KINGSPORT — TN-2025-11-13_db_lockdown Dobyns-Bennett High School was put on lock down for about 16 minutes early Monday afternoon in what a school system official called a preemptive move.It stemmed from what appeared to be an unauthorized person trying to enter the building, a school official said.Assistant Superintendent of Administration Andy True said in a phone interview at 1:20 p.m. Monday that "it looked like an unauthorized person was trying to get into the building," reflecting a email and phone call that went out of parents about the lockdown. The lockdown occurred at 12:35 p.m., he said. True said the infomration came from the D-B administration and directed further questions to the Kingpsort Police Department. A police spokesman said that as of 1:30 p.m. he had no further information to share other than what True did in the email."Good afternoon, this is Andy True with Kingsport Schools with a message for the Dobyns-Bennett community," True wrote in the email. "We wanted to make you aware that approximately 12:35 p.m., administration at Dobyns-Bennett made the decision to place the school on lockdown as a preemptive safety precaution due to a situation that appeared to be escalating outside the front of the school, where it appeared an unauthorized individual was attempting to enter the building," he wrote. "However, that situation was quickly resolved and the lockdown was lifted at approximately 12:51 p.m. School administration and our School Resource Officers are currently working through safety protocols to return the school to normal operations."Again, we wanted to let you know that this occurred this afternoon and that as a precaution to keep everyone as safe as possible, the school did go into lockdown for just over 15 minutes."Cpl. Brandon Arnold, pubic information and training officer for the Kingsport Police Department, said no other information was available at about 1:30 p.m. Monday."The situation is already handled," Arnold said, adding that he couldn't say anything else at that time.This is a developing story. Watch the Kingsport Times News online and the Wednesday print edition. for updates.