08/21/2026
On Wednesday, August 19, 2026, the TCAT – McMinnville community experienced a surprising and, for some, jarring, event when at approximately 1:40 p.m. McMinnville PD officers arrived in force to respond to, what they anticipated was, an active shooter event on the McMinnville campus of the TCAT. Their response followed information relayed to it based on a Facebook post from outside the local community. Fortunately, the information provided to McMinnville PD was false and there was no active shooter on the TCAT campus. Prior to the arrival of the McMinnville PD, the TCAT had received no alert and had no other information to indicate even the possibility of an active shooter on campus. As a result, the TCAT had not implemented its security lockdown procedure prior to McMinnville’s arrival. They quickly took control of the scene and determined that there was no danger at the TCAT. The TCAT community is greatly appreciative of the McMinnville PD’s response to the situation.
In response to several inquiries the TCAT has received about this matter, we want to assure students, their families, and especially their parents that the TCAT – McMinnville takes the safety of their students and employees seriously. We have a security lockdown procedure in place to respond to situations where a threat is believed to be inside the building or when school officials receive credible information that an imminent threat exists on or near campus. That procedure will be immediately implemented when it has knowledge of such an event. In this circumstance, the TCAT had no basis to think or suspect that an active shooter event was occurring and therefore no basis to activate its security lockdown procedure. Instead, McMinnville PD officers evacuated the building as part of their standard active shooter response protocols while assessing and clearing the campus. Fortunately, as it turned out, none had in fact occurred. The TCAT has subsequently returned to the business of providing quality technical education to its students in preparation for employment in the fields that are essential to the betterment of our students, the McMinnville community, and the State of Tennessee.
