Classes will be offered to law enforcement agencies and to schools to help them prepare for possible incidents
TOPEKA – Recently, Patrol Superintendent, Colonel Ernest E. Garcia, met with Governor Sam Brownback to discuss active shooter awareness and training for both schools and law enforcement across Kansas.
In response, the Kansas Highway Patrol has developed a one day training event to address school violence awareness, as well as active shooter (train-the-trainer) law enforcement response and mitigation.
This spring, the Kansas Highway Patrol will be offering training sessions across the state, open to all school district personnel, as well as to law enforcement officers, to assist in increased awareness and in preparation for possible acts of school violence. The Patrol’s Special Response Team (SRT) has been working with Dr. Diane DeBacker, Kansas Commissioner of Education, as well as Dr. Bob Hull, Director of the Kansas Center for Safe and Prepared Schools, to develop these training sessions to address the needs of Kansas schools and law enforcement agencies.
“These training sessions have been developed, not in response to a specific threat, but rather to help equip our schools and law enforcement agencies to preplan and mitigate these acts of school violence, in an effort to protect our children,” said Major Jason De Vore. “This is an unfortunate reality that we must address proactively. We routinely work with our local, state, and federal partners on a myriad of law enforcement challenges. It’s our hope that by bringing our law enforcement and school officials together into a combined setting to discuss the various concerns and challenges, and identify planning considerations, we will all be better prepared to address an unfortunate act of this nature, should one occur.”
Initially, three, one-day, training sessions will be offered across the state, with all law enforcement agencies and schools invited to the sessions. These training events will take place at the KHP Training Academy in Salina on Wednesday, March 13, 2013; at Fort Hays State University in Hays on Monday, March 25, 2013; and at Emporia State University in Emporia on Friday, April 19, 2013. The sessions address school violence awareness; active shooters; and law enforcement response and mitigation.
Each day’s session is broken into two parts. The morning session is for schools and law enforcement, and includes the School Violence Awareness training session. This session is designed to provide background information to plan and prepare for an active shooter. Participants will look at case studies of the Columbine shooting, which occurred in Colorado in 1999, and into the Virginia Tech shooting, which took place in 2007. The mindset of the shooters, situational awareness, the stages of an active shooter, and the law enforcement response will all be discussed. KHP will partner with school representatives to facilitate a question and discussion period, which will be enhanced by the participation of both school officials and law enforcement members in attendance.
The day’s afternoon session is a law enforcement “Train the Trainer” session. It is a Response and Mitigation training program designed to equip officers to go back and teach their department on the key elements for active shooter response and mitigation. The block will be led by KHP SRT team members from across the state.
The one-day program will be offered to all Kansas schools and law enforcement organizations, and it will be free of charge.