Poughkeepsie Journal,Pine Plains Central School District

Poughkeepsie Journal,Pine Plains Central School District: With a gunman in custody, police are working to evacuate Stissing Mountain school and account for the students. At about 11 a.m., Dutchess County Sheriff deputy Thomas Lasher announced to parents that students will be bused from the school to the town’s highway garage. They will be counted and bused back to the school

Poughkeepsie Journal,Pine Plains Central School District:With a gunman in custody, police are working to evacuate Stissing Mountain school and account for the students.

At about 11 a.m., Dutchess County Sheriff deputy Thomas Lasher announced to parents that students will be bused from the school to the town’s highway garage. They will be counted and bused back to the school.

Once all the students are back in the school, they are being told to go to their first period classroom where their teachers will take attendance to account for everyone who went to school this morning, Lasher announced.

At 11 a.m. school buses were spotted headed toward Stissing Mountain school.

American Red Cross volunteers and mental health workers are on site to provide counseling.

Earlier today, the gunman who allegedly barricaded himself in the middle school with a hostage was taken into custody, Town Supervisor Gregg Pulver said.

Multiple sources have said the man in custody is Christoper Craft, a Pine Plains resident.

Bob Hess, the middle school principal, who had been taken hostage, has been released unharmed.

At 10:15 a.m., police were working on a plan to evacuate students and reunite them with their parents, Pulver said.

The district’s Web site states the building includes grades 6 to 12. The high school enrollment is about 400 students and middle school includes about 270 students.

“We have to provide the counseling to the students who need it and figure out the best way to reunite students and parents. They are working on that,” Pulver said.

Bruce Kimball, vice president of the school’s board of education, said a lockdown drill was held Nov. 5 to practice for an emergency situation.more