BY MATTHEW STONE

Staff Writer

When a man allegedly entered Stockton Springs Elementary School Friday morning and held 11 students hostage with a gun, the school's emergency response plan went into effect immediately.

The school's administrators activated a "Code Blue" response, instructing teachers to stay with students and move them away from window view.

"They followed exactly what should have happened," Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told reporters Friday at a Statehouse news conference.

"It couldn't have been a quicker response," Gov. John Baldacci said.

School officials notified police of the intruder at 8:42 a.m.

Twenty minutes later, Randall Hofland was in custody.

Gendron said the school was already on "heightened alert" as a result of an incident in Searsport on Oct. 23 in which Hofland allegedly aimed a weapon at a local police officer conducting a seat-belt check, then drove off.

Students did not attend school the following day, Oct. 24, because Hofland remained on the loose at the time.

"A heightened sense of security had been instituted as a policy," Baldacci told reporters.

In Gardiner-based School Administrative District 11, two schools have entered a lockdown in the past year.

In December, police shot and killed a man armed with a rifle on Route 24 in South Gardiner. Nearby, River View Community School locked down as a result of its proximity.

And in May, Pittston Consolidated School entered partial lockdown as police pursued the assailants in a home invasion that left William Guerrette and his daughter Nicole critically injured.

"I think we're always on alert for those kinds of things," SAD 11 Superintendent Paul Knowles said. "We're always super-alert to the possibility."

For Winthrop Public Schools Superintendent Stephen Cottrell, Friday's incident was a reminder that no place -- and no school district -- is immune from dangerous situations.

"I think what it does is it re-heightens our awareness that those things can and do happen," he said.

Schools can erect a variety of security measures in an effort to reduce the likelihood of a hostage situation, weapon threat or other incident.

In Winthrop, for example, school doors lock during the day and visitors must hit a buzzer to be let in.

"We have measures of visibility and recognition," Cottrell said. "Is it preventable? No. Is it something we can take extra precautions about? Absolutely."

As difficult as it might be for a school or a town to deal with a frightening incident, Knowles said, a community's reaction can prove to be a force for healing.

"I think those types of incidents bring communities together," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.