‘Active Shooter Incident Management’ training

CLINTON, Iowa (KWQC) - Clinton County police, fire, and school officials are coming together for an ‘active shooter incident management’ course.

“It brings together all of our professions together throughout Clinton County to give us a better perspective training and better prepare us in the unfortunate event we ever have an active shooter within our community in our schools,” said Sheriff Bill Greenwalt.

Tom Parker, superintendent of the Camanche School District, has worked in school administration for 35 years. He said he was very impressed with the training.

“When I first started as an administrator, a lot of what we drilled would have been fire drills and tornado drills, and an unfortunate reality is we have to also drill for what we do in case of a threat, including an active shooter,” Parker said. “Our goal is to keep our schools as safe as possible. If people do not feel safe at school, it is very difficult to focus on learning.”

Sheriff Bill Greenwalt said that neutralizing a possible threat inside a school is not the only concern during an active shooter incident.

“One of the bigger threats is all of the chaos that occurs outside the school. It’s teaching us how to manage that. One of the really important things we are learning from this training is how to work with our school districts, superintendents, and our principals when we have to reunify all of our students back with their parents,” Greenwalt said.

“Communication between law enforcement and first responders and school personnel is essential,” Parker said. “We hope we never have to use this, but then again it is very important we do have a preparation plan in place and have had a chance to practice that in simulations.”

The training is being taught by the University of Illinois Fire Institute. It’s paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funding.

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