SHELBY CO., Ala. (WBRC) – The events that took place in Uvalde, Texas encouraged law enforcement and school districts to not only enhance their school safety measures, but also build upon their relationships.
Today, Shelby County Schools and multiple agencies did just that during their active shooter training exercise at Inverness Elementary School.
The event was a joint exercise of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Shelby County Board of Education, Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, Shelby County 911 Office, Compact, Hoover Police Department, Helena Police Department, ATF Birmingham, North Shelby Fire Department, and Cahaba Valley Fire Department.
You never want to think that tragic events will happen here in your back yard, but from what we have seen across the country, you never really know when or where they could happen.
Which is why every year the school district along with law enforcement look at different at ways to improve security, and this training was one of them.
Shelby County School District Public Relations Coordinator Cindy Warner said, “it’s one thing to have a plan on paper but a plan on paper is never going to go as planned.”
It’s been several years since the school district and law enforcement have trained together like this and, although it’s the start of Christmas break, it was imperative that administration and school leaders were present for this training.
“Video cameras were set up throughout the scene of where the incident was taking place and a live feed was going up to their media center where they were watching as the event took place,” Warner said.
Age-appropriate student explorer volunteers were also present to help with the mass causality exercise.
Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Nathan Kendrick said they even took a different approach and had their SRO removed from the scenario at the beginning of the exercise
“We want to train on the hardest level that we can so taking him out of the scenario early required our patrolman to step up and respond to a higher level,” Kendrick said.
It’s important that these training take place inside the school because it’s as close to reality as they can get.
“Sometimes you are surprised at the little things you discover, maybe our key didn’t work to get us in the door, or maybe approaching from this angle exposes us to certain things.”
The most important part of the training is to stop the threat as quickly as possible.
Come January they will hold a debrief to discuss what went wrong, what went right and what they need to work on.
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