photo by: Emma Delk

Marshall County Schools WVEIS and Safety Coordinator Shey McGuire, left, and JH Consulting Exercise Support Staff Jeff Harvey prepare for the reunification exercise at the John Marshall Fieldhouse on Tuesday.

The Marshall County Emergency Management Agency, Marshall County Schools and the Marshall County Health Department collaborated Tuesday to ensure that county teachers and staff know how to reunite parents and students after an emergency.

The reunification exercise, held Tuesday morning at the John Marshall Fieldhouse, is part of the Marshall County EMA’s active shooter exercise series, which will culminate in an active shooter drill in June.

Marshall County EMA Director Tom Hart said the exercise on Tuesday was a “functional drill” that taught staff how to relocate themselves and students in “any type of emergency.” Hart added that the drill would provide staff with the process for reuniting students with parents if the students had to be relocated to another location when an emergency occurred.

“As part of the active shooter series, we’ve had several workshops and some other smaller exercises to lead up to the actual active shooter drill in June,” Hart said. “Today, we are running through the steps and procedures of relocating students and staff during an emergency.”

At the start of the drill, MCS staff were given an identification card to play the role of a student or a parent. Participants had to properly reunite with their assigned parent or student during the exercise.

“Since this is a new process that we haven’t worked through with our school yet, teachers and staff need to understand what it’s going to look like if we do this in real life,” MCS WVEIS and Safety Coordinator Shey McGuire said. “For instance, if there is a fire across the street and we can’t exit the front of the building, we must go somewhere else. The staff members need to know what that would look like on a large scale so that they’re comfortable managing it if we use it for a crisis.”

While the exercise covered the post-incident response to an emergency, Hart noted that clear communication is crucial throughout an emergency situation to ensure the safety of students and staff.

“It starts with communication during the response to the incident, while neutralizing the incident and then during the post-incident,” Hart said. “A lot of times, the post-incident part is crucial regarding the beginning of the recovery process.”

Hart said Marshall County EMA will hold additional workshops and meetings with MCS and other public safety partners to prepare for the active shooter drill in June. He noted that this was the first time in “several years” Marshall County EMA had conducted an active shooter series at this scale for MCS.

“The biggest thing for all participants involved with this is that they are actually able to learn something from it and can improve the process and response, not just for an active shooter, but any type of emergency,” Hart said.

McGuire said Tuesday’s drill provided MCS staff with “one more thing to put into their toolkit” to handle “any emergency situation” they encounter.

“Most of our school staff will participate in the final portion of the active shooter series, but school staff also annually work on their school safety drills,” McGuire said. “This reunification drill is one more thing that will prepare them for an emergency situation. It’s been great working with different community organizations during these workshops and drills.”