Community

John Marshall High School Hosts Large-Scale Training Session for First Responders

Shelley Hanson

Marshall County's first responders conducted a large-scale school safety drill Monday at John Marshall High School.

The scenario included an active shooter entering the school, asking to see one of the assistant principals. The mock shooter, played by Marshall County Schools Safety Coordinator Shey Maguire, came into the building asking to see "Mr. Clutter," and upon not being able to find him began searching hallways and classrooms where he shot victims.

The victims, played by volunteer teachers, received cards ahead of time that included a list of their wounds. No students participated.

The cards were meant to help emergency medics from Glen Dale, McMechen and Marshall County sort out, or triage, who needed to go to the emergency room first at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital.

The shooter was apprehended quickly on an upper floor by the Marshall County Sheriff's Department; however, to allow more training to occur the mock shooter was allowed to go to other floors.

The final incident ended in the basement level where a Glen Dale Police Department officer "shot" the shooter inside a classroom where four people had been shot.

Medics came into the classroom to assess the wound cards and decided who would be going in what ambulances. Additional training for doctors and nurses at Reynolds Memorial occurred after the mock victims were brought to the ER via ambulance.

In addition to the Marshall County Sheriff's Department, EMS and Glen Dale Police Department, the Marshall County Emergency Management Agency also participated in and coordinated the training with the high school.

Following the training, Prevention Resource Officer Shawn Mayle of the Marshall County Sheriff's Department said the training "went OK."

"There were some negatives in it, but that's good training. If you can learn something without someone getting hurt then that's a positive," Mayle said. "It opened my eyes on some things that need more work, but there was some good stuff that did happen.

"Most of this was directed toward EMS response and not so much law enforcement response."

Mayle said if such an emergency did arise, there would be multiple agencies from across the region that would respond. He said if an incident occurred at one school in the county, the other schools would be put in a lockdown as well as a precaution.

"People like to copycat stuff," he noted.

Mayle said he hopes additional trainings are held in the near future to help all first responders and EMS be prepared.

"My title is PRO, prevention resource officer. That's the whole goal, to prevent this from happening, not to react when something's already happened," he said.

Mayle said he and other PROs from across the state had a training conference at The Highlands two weeks ago. PROs receive ongoing special training for their position in addition to training at sheriff's deputies, he said.

Before the scenario began, Maguire said the training would allow the school to evaluate its response plans in coordination with the agencies. He noted a similar training was held at Cameron High School on Monday morning.

"Even though you know it's training, your heart starts beating and you start to think, 'What would I do in this situation?' Maguire said. "And that's why we practice, because we work through some scenarios so that in the very unfortunate event that something does happen we can respond more appropriately."

One of the volunteer victims, JM speech therapist Candace McBee said it was her first time volunteering for such training.

"I thought it would be good to know and the experience would be valuable," McBee said. This is my first year in this county and I wanted to see how they did things differently.

"I think it's good they're doing a mock drill because you can never be too prepared. I think this will be beneficial to help the staff prepare so we can prepare the students."

Tom Hart, director of the Marshall County Emergency Agency, said he hopes to do similar training events across the county this school year.

"One of the biggest pieces in any exercise like this is communication. That's one area on our end of it that we're focusing on is the actual communications piece," he said.

"What happens not only in the classrooms and hallways but within the facilities themselves. Following a command structure and things like that."

Hart added that it's important for all the agencies to come together and train together in the event of such a scenario.