ACTIVE SHOOTER: School staff, deputies participate in drill

Published 6:00 am Thursday, April 26, 2018

By Staff reports

A Limestone County administrator holds a 9 mm Glock handgun as part of a team searching for a shooter during an school shooter simulation. Administrators were told to keep their index finger straight out away from the trigger to avoid accidentally shooting someone, but sometimes in the heat of the moment, instructions can be forgotten.

Limestone County Schools leaders have long touted the system as being one of the safest in the state, but in 2018, there is seemingly no such thing as a 100-percent safe school.

To that end, the school system partnered with Limestone County Schools to offer an active shooter simulation course Wednesday at the shuttered Owens Elementary School. Students played “victims” in the mock drill, while principals and administrative staff had an opportunity to portray law enforcement.

Limestone County Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Stephen Young said the drill provided an opportunity for gun-toting administrators to understand what officers go through during an active shooter situation.

“We put them in our shoes, so they could understand things from our side,” Young said. “It allowed them to see what happens when your adrenaline gets up and you’ve got to shoot or don’t shoot.”

There were two training sessions held, and each featured 30–40 participants.

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School safety

School officials have been proactive in ensuring safety at each county school. In addition to an armed school resource officer at every school, there are about 900 SafeDefend boxes. The boxes can only be opened by school personnel and include tools like mace and billy clubs.

If a teacher opens one of the boxes, local law enforcement are automatically contacted.

Schools also employ the Rave Panic Button, which allows school personnel to contact law enforcement with the push of a button on a smartphone. The initiative represented a partnership between the local school systems and Athens-Limestone E911.

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