Iowa schools are required to hold active shooter drills, just like fire and tornado drills, and school staff and first responders held a large-scale drill Wednesday afternoon at West Delaware High School in Manchester.
Delaware County emergency management coordinator Mandy Bieber and Delaware County Sheriff Travis Hemesath say they practiced a scenario that involved a pair of gunmen.
Bieber says, “We had two active shooters, one who was already down when the officers entered the school, and then we had eight total victims that had gunshot wounds to their bodies in some sort of form.” Hemesath adds, “And then they also at the end there, we had a law enforcement officer that went down.”
To clarify it was only a drill, large electronic signs reading “Training in Progress” were posted on the streets near the high school. A mock 911 call was made to dispatch, there was simulated gunfire, victims wore theatrical make-up to resemble real-life gunshot wounds, and emergency vehicles responded to the scene.
Bieber says the exercise went well, overall, but it also revealed a few areas where there’s room to improve.
“We definitely have some communication stuff to work on, but with these lessons learned, we’re going to be able to set up our training for the next couple of years to start working on that,” Bieber says. “We have a very young force, so this was exactly what we expected.”
Sheriff Hemesath says practicing these scenarios can be a great lesson for all parties involved.
“I think we’ve seen a lot of good things today. I think we’ve seen a lot of things we could work on. I think this is a good moment for the guys, all law enforcement, EMS, and fire, to find those certain areas where we need improvement,” Hemesath says. “But we’ve seen a lot of good things, too, though.” Bieber says, “The entire point was to find our gaps and fill them, so that’s where we’re at.”
The hour-long drill started around 3 PM, after school had dismissed early for the day, so students were not on site.
(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)