Brownwood News – Multiple agencies, including the Brownwood Police and Fire Departments, Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Early Police and Fire Departments, LifeGuard EMS, and BISD personnel trained for the unthinkable on Wednesday at the Brownwood Middle School.
“I don’t think anything has been done on this scale. It’s an active threat based scenario,” explained Brownwood Police Chief Terry Nichols. The wide-ranging Emergency Response Drill is the largest coordinated training exercise ever conducted with the school district. The drill was staged at the Brownwood Middle School with several emergency scenarios that played out in real time, utilizing school district personnel, volunteers, local law enforcement, emergency response personnel, and Brownwood Regional Medical Center employees.
Individuals from the different agencies walked through the actions necessary for the appropriate response to several emergency situations, including an active shooter event at the school. The advanced training will allow for a review of emergency procedures and plans in place.
Evacuation procedures and reunification plans were of particular importance to Brownwood ISD Superintendent Dr. Joe Young.
“We may have ten people injured, but then we have another 600 kids that we need to get back to their families in an orderly manner,” Dr. Young said. Administrators at each school are trained to implement a strategic plan for getting students safely out of the building, and transporting them to a designated safe location to be reunited with their families.
“We’ll have maps in place so that people will know how to check in, where to pick up their children, where to provide ID, and we’ll have people at the hospital for any students transferred there,” said Dr. Young.
Inside the middle school on Wednesday, 30 Brownwood High School students with the theater department were prepped to represent scared students, some with life threatening injuries.
“I’m glad we’re doing this training,” said their drama teacher, Shannon Lee.
“As an educator, because the more I think about something like this actually happening, the scarier it gets. There are so many different components, like how does the school district respond, how to the police respond, how does the hospital respond – that’s a lot of moving pieces. I think training like this is imperative.”
In a press release posted earlier this week, Superintendent Joe Young said, “BISD is extremely grateful to Chief Terry Nichols, our law enforcement and emergency response community, and the staff of BRMC in allowing us to join their drill to hone our emergency procedures. While we pray that dangerous situations will never occur on our campuses, we know that they are real possibilities and that we must be prepared for them each and every day. Our number one goal as a district is the safety and well-being of our students and staff. This exercise is a microscopic review of our procedures, from the moment we receive a call that a situation has occurred to the last minute of response and care of every person affected. This is rich training ground for us, and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with local professionals to insure that we have the most effective plans in place to care for our people. The cooperation of these groups with BISD has been phenomenal and speaks well of the quality and professionalism of each group represented.”
Last November the Brownwood Police Department along with LifeGuard EMS and the hospital participated in a training for different emergency situations, such as a devastating tornado at the school, and the necessary evacuation procedures.
