‘Incredibly valuable’ for administrators, superintendent says
By Gary Lloyd
TRUSSVILLE — They traded in textbooks for blue handguns, their sweaters for thick, black vests and helmets.
Some performed extraordinarily well for just 15 or so minutes of hands-on instruction in the halls of Paine Intermediate School. Some struggled to keep up with the others, to pull the trigger. All feel better prepared.
Trussville City Schools last week, in conjunction with the Trussville Police Department, held its first active shooter training since forming the school system in 2004.
From left are Trussville Police Department Sgt. Todd Posey, Trussville City Schools Director of Student Services Hal Riddle and Trussville City Schools Alternative Learning Center Principal Phyllis Faust.
photo by Gary Lloyd
The training was for school system administrators, not teachers. It gave them a “bird’s eye view” of how the police force trains for an active school shooter situation, said Lt. Jeff Bridges.
Officer Chuck Bradford, who presented a PowerPoint presentation about past school shootings and what was learned from each, said 24 administrators attended last Tuesday’s course. The number of participants was the same for last Wednesday.
Administrators spent a couple hours each morning listening to Bradford’s presentation, then had a roundtable discussion about crisis plans, lockdown drills and more. In the afternoon, they learned basic movements and formations, then participated in a practical exercise in which they moved in groups down a hallway to locate an active shooter.
“The active shooter training was incredibly valuable in training school personnel to assist law enforcement and understand procedures and events if we encounter an active school shooter,” said Trussville City Schools Superintendent Pattie Neill.
Trussville Police Department’s School Resource Officer Unit — Bradford, Mike Roberson, Rob Hicks, Keith Rosetta, Brian Williams, Josh Payne and Todd Posey — led the groups in practical exercises. They taught school administrators how to properly hold and point a handgun in the event that a school resource officer is down.
Trussville police officer Keith Rosetta readies for an active shooter training exercise with Trussville City Schools administrators at Paine Intermediate School last week.
photo by Gary Lloyd
“School shooting events may be over in less than 10 minutes, so it is important that school personnel understand and act quickly because it happens so fast,” Neill said. “Student safety through the knowledge of how to act quickly to protect students was enhanced greatly because of this training.”
The week before last week’s training, Trussville City Schools Athletics Director Karen Johns was in Colorado for the Uncommon Coaches Clinic, presented by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and Rachel’s Challenge. Johns heard from parents of children who were in Columbine High School in 1999, where two students killed 12 classmates and one teacher in a mass school shooting. She saw footage from that day.
“It was overwhelming,” Johns said.
The conference had a deep impact on Johns, she said. She said participating in last week’s active school shooter training was a good thing for herself and others. Columbine was on her mind.
“The whole thing was very rewarding for me because I was like, ‘You know what, we need to be ready,’” Johns said. “It can happen to us. When you see that community, it’s just like our community.”
Bradford said there are three levels of susceptibility for school systems’ likeliness to be infiltrated by an active shooter: soft, hard and impossible. Trussville is aiming for the latter.
“That’s the goal,” he said.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.
