SOUTH CHINA — Officials at Erskine Academy, one of central Maine’s largest private high schools, are highlighting recent security improvements in the wake of a school shooting this week in Georgia.

Jamie Soule is headmaster of Erskine Academy in South China. Photo courtesy of Erskine Academy

Headmaster Jamie Soule said in a community statement Wednesday night that the school at 309 Windsor Road in South China has bolstered precautionary measures inside and outside the school, where about 600 students are enrolled.

The announcement came a week into classes and hours after a 14-year-old student opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Two teachers and two students were killed, while at least nine other people were hospitalized.

While there were no threats made against Erskine or other Maine schools, Soule said the announcement was made to reassure students, staff and parents that the school is safe.

“I don’t like having to start the school year off this way, but we don’t control that timing,” Soule said. “Even though the chances of something like this happening here are miniscule, we’re going to make sure that we’re prepared if something happens.”

Wednesday’s shooting in Georgia raised many questions about the efficacy of both school administrators’ and law enforcements’ efforts to prevent school shootings. Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes after a report of shots fired went out, officials said. The teen immediately surrendered and was taken into custody. The FBI had received tips about the shooter’s threats more than a year ago, prompting police to interview the then-13-year-old boy and his father.

A number of student trainings, safety initiatives and precautionary measures have been implemented at Erskine, Soule said Thursday. Security cameras and “emergency communication systems” were installed at the school over the summer, in addition to a “control room,” where school administrators can remotely lock doors and speak by intercom to individual classrooms and sections of the building.

Erskine’s entire ninth grade class took part Thursday morning in ALICE training led by Soule. The ALICE program, which stands for “alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate,” is designed to train students and educators how to respond in the moment to a school shooting.

The training is offered regularly to Erskine’s roughly 600 students, Soule said. Counseling services for students and staff are also being offered by Erskine’s advisors and counselors, the release noted. Erskine Academy, a private institution, is a high school choice option for students in eight sending towns — Chelsea, China, Jefferson, Palermo, Somerville, Vassalboro, Whitefield, and Windsor — and for students outside that group who pay tuition.

“Not only do we train here, but we’ve actually had other schools come to us to train,” Soule said. “We’re particularly considerate of our new students in their freshman year. We want to make sure students understand that they’re in a secure school.”

Soule’s statement said the school works closely with the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office and Maine State Police.

While the school does not have a resource officer stationed inside, sheriff’s deputies from Kennebec County have offered training to Erskine’s students and staff members in the past, according to Lt. Chris Read of the Sheriff’s Office.

“We have done some training with the staff in the past, but I am not sure how long ago that was,” Read wrote Thursday in an email. “We also have a certified trainers that will work with the school if requested to teach them how law enforcement is going to respond and what they can do until law enforcement arrives.”

The state police also offers active shooter trainings to schools across Maine, according to Lt. Aaron Turcotte, as the agency sees an uptick in the number of shooting threats and “swatting” incidents, in which a false report of a violent crime is made with the intent of drawing a heavy police response.

Both the state police and FBI have been investigating active shooter hoaxes at schools across Maine since at least 2022.

“We are seeing an increase in bomb threats, shooting threats and swatting of schools throughout the whole country,” Turcotte said. “We take them all seriously, whether it’s a single call, a robo call or even a handwritten note or social media post.”

Schools across Maine were put on alert several times at the start of the last school year when a spate of bomb and shooting threats were made against a number of high schools, prekindergarten schools and community colleges in Augusta, Presque Isle, Skowhegan and Topsham.

A Fort Fairfield man was arrested in November 2023 after threatening to “show up at the local elementary school with his AR-15,” police said. Schools were locked down and classes were canceled in each incident. None of the threats was found to be credible.