Prayers for Uvalde

May 28—A local resident organized a special prayer service Friday afternoon to remember those affected by a shooting earlier this week at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Ty Griffith led a prayer service in the Chapel at The Cross at the Crossroads Friday afternoon to pray for the victims and their families. A group of 20 attended as rain brought the service inside.

"It was put on my heart to do something because I think when we see innocent young lives taken that just does something to us. I have small children and I just can't imagine the pain and grief those folks must be going through right now," Griffith said.

He said he didn't want to argue on social media about what the government or anybody else should do in response to the shooting.

"I know the one thing I could do to help them and that is to pray to our Lord Jesus Christ and he could intercede for them," he said. "I would hope this event in Texas would unite us and seek a closer walk with Jesus."

Griffith offered the first prayer and encouraged others attending to offer their prays out loud.

"I just wanted to get this together to pray for these folks," said Griffith.

He offered a quick prayer and read off the names of all of those who lost their lives.

"Lord we know you have arms around all of the victims and their families. As I read each name I humbly request that you intercede for them," he prayed.

Dan Milleville traveled from Altamont to Friday's prayer service with his sisters Mary Ann Smith and Lois Phillips.

"Ever since this came out in the news it's been on my mind," Milleville said. "My wife was a teacher for 43 years and many thoughts started going through my mind."

Milleville is an Altamont City Commissioner who felt he needed to attend the service.

"I wanted to come because I think we need a lot of prayers," he said.

Also offering prayers during the service included Cleone Bloemker, Laura Arney and Larry Arney.

Laura Arney was a second grade teacher at Altamont Grade School and her husband, Larry Arney, was a teacher at Dieterich High School.

"I really appreciate them doing this today," Laura Arney said. "As an educator it's the worst nightmare you could imagine."

Area educators also reacted during interviews this week.

Unit 40 Superintendent Mark Doan, who will be retiring at the end of June, said situations like the one in Texas are always a concern.

"At Unit 40 over the years, we have taken some big steps when it comes to security," Doan said.

He said in years past all of the doors were unlocked and anyone could enter the school — today that's no longer true.

"Now during the day the doors are locked and there is an entrance where visitors must get buzzed in," he said. "We did that to all of our buildings in the district."

Doan said they have a resource officer for the schools a program that has been in place for over 20 years. He said the school resource officer is from the Effingham Police Department. In years past, an Effingham County Sheriff's deputy filled the role of resource officer.

"The resource officer is now strictly for our district and not sharing that person," said Doan. "We invite city policemen to stop in and say "hi." We've also do staff training."

He said at the beginning of the school year they have staff training. Doan said during training staff members role play in different crisis scenarios.

Doan said, "We actually have the police come in and do intruder drills. We have a crisis plan we are continually updating. Our resource officers go to training every summer and they bring back good, new ideas and update our crisis plan."

Retired Altamont and Charleston Superintendent of Schools Jim Littleford was always concerned about the safety of his students and the possibility of dealing with a school shooting scenario.

"It is the thing that drove me to a lot of sleepless nights because I always worried about that. Not that we had any real problems — but you don't know — things can happen," Littleford said. "It just seems to becoming more prevalent in our society."

Charles Mills can be reached at charles.mills@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300126.