DIXFIELD – If someone with a weapon should enter Dirigo High School, or some other emergency should happen there, the students and staff know exactly what to do.

Some of those students who underwent lockdown training with area police departments reported on what they learned to the SAD 21 board Tuesday night.

“They taught us how to be serious and how everyone should be serious,” said Mike Beale whose father is a Mexico police officer.

“We must keep quiet. We should put a paper under the door if someone is in our room,” Tia Dakin said.

The training appeared particularly timely in light of Tuesday’s bomb scare at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford.

Dirigo High School Principal Dan Hart said the students took part in training during the summer of 2006. Since that time, presentations have been made to staff and students, and periodically, students go through an emergency drill.

Student Brianna Janke said those students and staff who may be outside, such as those in physical education classes, would be notified via walkie-talkies that are provided to some teachers and coaches. They would not be allowed into the school and could be required to go into nearby Dixfield Elementary School.

“We explained it is a serious matter. They understood what to do if there is an intruder,” she said.

Last year, all students learned procedures through assemblies and small group meetings and the use of the term “code blue” to mean an emergency. This year, freshmen and new students learn about the process.

Other procedures used to alert students and staff are placement of an orange cone in the corridor, monitoring of people entering the school via a visitor’s desk staffed by students or volunteers at the main entrance, keeping other exterior doors locked and requiring visitor passes. Classroom teachers are also required to lock their doors in the event of an emergency.

Board member Rick Colpitts questioned whether the plan, specifically use of the term code blue, has been reviewed by the county’s emergency management director, Scott Parker.

“He is discouraging the use of codes because some people don’t know what it means. Instead, we should say what it is,” he said.

Hart said that although the procedure was set up to deal with an intruder, it could also be used if a staff member should have a heart attack or experience some other catastrophic event, or if the school should experience an oil spill of some kind.

All SAD 21 schools now have procedures in place if an intruder or some other event should happen, said Superintendent Tom Ward.