Emergency personnel, community partners conduct active shooter training at East Columbus High
This full-scale active shooter simulation was put into place to establish a coordinated response between area law enforcement and emergency management agencies.
COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — East Columbus High School hosted a critical training event on Saturday to help school and emergency officials be prepared in the event of an active shooter.
189 people attended this training. Attendees ranged from the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office to the American Red Cross.
This full-scale active shooter simulation was put into place to establish a coordinated response between area law enforcement and emergency management agencies.
Instructors from the consulting company, CRISISTEC, traveled to Columbus County to conduct this training exercise.
Scot Brooks, CRISISTEC President, said, “Columbus County wanted to do an active assailant exercise with all of their different providers and their mutual aid partners. To ensure that they have some good plans in place, but they wanted to ensure those by really practicing those in a scenario-based format.”
In addition to the training that utilized mock victims, the Columbus County Sheriff’s Department can also now view camera that are installed within surrounding schools to ensure even more safety measures are being taken. This surveillance can ultimately help officials assess a situation before, during, and after an incident.
Bill Rogers, Columbus County Sheriff, said, “Well, there’s hardly no way to prepare, but with all the training we can get. Because you see this happening all over the United States so if it was to happen here — so the more training we have with our resource officers and when are back-up is coming to them. It’s gonna be – the training is – we don’t (want) no mistakes.”
Both law enforcement and school representatives say this training is a necessary tool to help them make schools as safe as possible.
They will continue to review their plan-of-action and response for situations like the one practiced on Saturday.
