DUNLAP, Ill. – The Dunlap School District, with the help of law enforcement and first responders, showed students and staff on Friday what emergency crews would do if an armed assailant attacked their school.
Friday’s drill came three days after a 13-year-old boy brought a loaded handgun to Dunlap Valley Middle School, but Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins said the exercise was planned months before Tuesday’s incident.
The Dunlap Fire Department, AMT and the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office took part in the live simulation, with ten officers and 12 student volunteers creating the scene.
According to 25 News, officers used simulation guns and force-on-force action to show students and teachers what it might look like. Blanks were also used so staff could hear how a gunshot would sound.
“There’s just so many moving parts,” said Sheriff Watkins. “We’re going to see that there were mistakes made today, but we want to make the mistakes in training, not in real time.”
Watkins said it was important for emergency responders and Dunlap school staff to experience how they’d respond to a similar situation, especially after Tuesday’s incident.
”We’ve seen threats decline over the last couple years which is good, but the threats that are coming to our attention are more serious than ever,” Watkins said. “It struck home this week why we do this.”
Dunlap Superintendent Scott Dearman said school staff said the experience was “eye-opening.” He said the drill also gave them pointers on how to improve the district’s crisis management plan.
”Today’s exercise was really more for them than for us, but it allowed us the opportunity to observe what their tactics are, and other protocols and procedures, learn from that, and then we can go back to our crisis management plan and see how we can [integrate] some of that in,” Dearman said.
Watkins said a similar drill will be held soon at another local school district.
Dearman said Dunlap schools plan to have an evacuation and parent unification drill coming up in the fall.
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