PENDLETON — It was a day of preparing and training educators and staff for the a scenario no school district or community ever wants to face — responding to an active shooter.
Administrators, teachers and staff from the South Madison Community School Corp. gathered for safety training recently at Pendleton Heights High School.
From making sure teachers and administrators understand the Run, Hide, Fight procedure, to taking part in a variety of exercises — along with learning to apply tourniquets and practical strategies to prolong life until help arrives — it was a full day of instruction.
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Tony Candiano, district safety director and assistant principal at Pendleton Elementary School, worked with Pendleton Police Department and Madison County Sheriff’s Department to set up and coordinate activities.
The district feel it’s important to go above and beyond state mandates to keep students and teachers safe, Candiano said.
For example, while the state calls for districts to have at least one safety specialist, the South Madison school district has at least one per building. The district also employs highly trained school resource officers.
“We take our student safety seriously here,” Candiano said. “Case in point — spending an in-service day dedicated to safety training.”
Pendleton Police Chief Marc Farrer told attendees about his department’s readiness should an incident occur in their area.
He also spoke with educators about their role in helping to keep themselves and students safe should an active shooter attack their building.
“As teachers, this is the last thing they ever wanted to be part of,” Farrer said. “It’s not part of their behavioral make-up, and, unfortunately, due to the life and times we live in, they’ve had to develop into this mind-set.”
An educator’s immediate action can curb an incident and save lives, Farrer said.
As part of the training, security officials conducted active drills inside the building, even firing blank rounds in the hallways, so educators could get an idea of what real gun fire sounds like inside a school.
Many people will hear a gun shot, but their brain will tell them it’s the train across the street or a muffler backfiring, or it was a kid dropping a book — anything but an actual gun shot, and that causes a delay in action that can make the difference between life or death, Farrer said.
“Different areas of the school will make the rounds sound, bullets sound, different,” he said. “That way it’s recognizable in an event.”
The safety specialist also conducted table top exercises, during which educators could act out scenarios and answer questions to test their readiness.
Educators also learned emergency medical care from Chris Nodine, Indiana paramedic of the year 2012. He taught teachers how to use tourniquets and care strategies to keep people alive until professional help arrives.
Connie Rickert, principal at Pendleton Heights High School, took an active role in the drills and walked away feeling like she and her staff are better prepared to keep each other and students safe.
“I felt the training was very effective,” Rickert said.
Multiple teachers told her at the end of the professional development day and via e-mail later they felt the training was necessary and there was value in what was learned.
“I was surprised at the number of teachers who had not ever heard a gunshot, and now having heard it, the recognition of the sound in seconds versus minutes could make a difference in life or death,” she said.
