Photo courtesy of the Emery County Sheriff’s Office
A former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School near Miami,FL opened fire on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people and injured many more. This shooting was just one of many that have occurred in recent years in schools all across the United States.
Collectively, Castle Country is home to 21 schools, ranging from elementary schools to middle and high schools. With this frightening topic becoming more often an issue, parents are understandably and justifiably concerned with their children’s safety.
Carbon County Sheriff Jeff Wood, along with Carbon County Emergency Operations Director Justin Needles, recently spoke to ETV 10 News on the subject. Sheriff Wood stated that one of the things that he wants to see as sheriff is a collaborative effort for a comprehensive plan involving each school in the County.
Sheriff Wood also stated that along with drills that are conducted at the schools, he would like to see assemblies hosted beforehand to inform the students what to expect and what the officers will look like in that situation. He also stated that he would like to educate parents as to the purpose of the drills and provide them with the opportunity to sit down with their children and discuss the importance of the drills. He would then like to debrief all involved and gain student input.
Needles stated that he attended a training in Columbine, Colo. along with Ken Labrum and Kerry Jensen of in August of 2016. According to Needles, the training was intense and those in attendance listened to several of the parents of the students that were killed. The parents spoke on things they wish would have been handled better in the situation.
“It all builds up to, how do we protect our kids?” Needles asked.
During the training, the trio worked hard on the Run, Hide, Fight response for students and expressed that it is prudent to think beforehand about the situation and what they are going to do. Training the students so that they have a better automatic response is of the utmost importance. Needles then expressed that his goal as the Carbon County Emergency Manager is to look toward Emery County and implement their goal into Carbon County by having a drill every year to enable to students to be prepared in an emergency situation.
Sheriff Wood also stated that law enforcement tries to make a presence in each school by having officers walk through each day. He stressed that schools are their top priorities and if an emergency does occur, they will be prepared with all of the tools to address it.
Needles then brought up the fact that of all active shooters, the majority of them post about doing something beforehand on social media, YouTube or the like. He would like to encourage students that if they see something, say something and make someone aware.
“It is going to be one of those kids that says something that does something,” Needles said.
Emery County Sheriff Greg Funk also touched base with ETV 10 on the issue, stating that there is a resource officer that teaches criminal justice to the students at Emery High and the middle schools in the area. Officers are instructed to visit the schools and practice lockdowns each year.
Sheriff Funk explained that one school each year is chosen for a mock active shooter drill and there is also an officer that is stationed at the Green River High School. The local law enforcement officers work hard to ensure that there is an officer present for safety and comfort.
“Schools are the highest priority,” Funk said.
Price City Captain Bill Barnes wanted to assure the public, parents and children that the department is taking measure to not only prevent this type of emergency, but take steps if an emergency were to occur. Captain Barnes stated that the department does take seriously any report of threat that is received, no matter how large or small. Regardless of how minor the situation may seem, they do not want anything to fall through the cracks.
“We would rather come to your house, school, wherever, 99 times and have it be nothing than miss the one time that we needed to be there,” Captain Barnes stated.
Monthly trainings are conducted on rapid deployment. Captain Barnes expressed that if there were an incident at any of the schools, everybody that was on duty would head to the school to intercept any threat. The new protocol is to immediately respond and do what it takes to ensure that the threat no longer exists.
Captain Barnes stated that the department is in contact with Carbon School District and every year a significant drill is conducted in at least one of the schools. When this takes place, all of the applicable agencies in the area are invited to participate.
“It’s all about protecting kids,” Captain Barnes said.
Captain Barnes wanted to ensure the community that the department wants to bring people together for the safety and security of the students and will do whatever it takes to protect them.
This is the first article of two on the topic. Check back with ETV 10 News for the point of view of the school representatives.