On October 21st eight students and all teachers at Fair Grove participated in active shooter training. Training included a few people, like Coach Bill Voorhis, wearing masks and firing blanks at the students and teachers. Several students posed as victims lying in the hallways and teachers were supposed to figure out what to do in each scenario.
Officer Greg Porter said, “We had two different sessions with different scenarios in each building. We invited the Fair Grove Police Department to conduct building searches, and different students from Student Council and Advanced Theater to help us out”. There were two guns in each session, a 9mm handgun and a semi-automatic machine gun. Both guns only fired blanks. “This gave our scenarios more of a real effect as the teachers heard the sound of gunfire in the hallways,” said Porter.
Corey Lile, the band teacher, said “It’s one of the things that scares me the most about teaching, nowadays. There’s 1,000 what ifs, and we can’t be ready with that ‘what if’ on any given day”. Many teachers, including Lile, wish that the school would incorporate more students with active shooter training, “Kids need to be just a prepared as teachers,” he said.
The seven students involved in active shooter training would pose as victims, try to get back into their classrooms, and help block doors and escape through windows. ¨The fact that there were students made this a lot more realistic for me, and I had a lot more issues distancing myself from the situation emotionally,¨ shared Sarah Brannock, science teacher and volleyball coach. ¨I’m glad that we go through active shooter training and I am glad that it is realistic, but it is very emotional for me,¨ said Brannock, ¨I don’t like to think about violence against the people that I care about.¨
No school thinks they will be the next victim until they are, and Fair Grove has gone above and beyond to make sure they are as prepared as possible. Many schools including Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and Columbine, have experienced traumatic events involving mass school shootings. Every single person on staff here has to go through active shooter training, from elementary to high school. Though no one can be truly prepared for a situation like this, Fair Grove has gone to extremes to make sure they are as as ready as possible.