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As Bellefontaine City Schools students and many other local pupils head back to classes Wednesday, school officials, area law enforcement and safety services have been busy finalizing plans for a simulated intruder drill that will take place the first week of September at Bellefontaine High School.
Bellefontaine Police Department Officer and school resource officer Doug Walters presented information about the drill at Monday evening’s board of education meeting, relating the logistics of this exercise have been developed over the past year.
The state of Ohio now requires schools to practice an evacuation drill every year. Officer Walters said this simulation will take the requirement a step further by actually having a police officer posing as a “bad guy” entering the building at an undisclosed location.
School staff then will relay information over the BHS public announcement system about the intruder’s location in the building so that teachers and students can make the decision about whether to evacuate or stay in their classrooms.
“It’s gut-wrenching that we even have to do this,” Officer Walters said. “As a police officer, I train for the reality of what goes on. I want the school community to have the opportunity to do this as well.
“We’re trying to get out of the complacency that we fall into sometimes to make this drill more true-to-life. If we don’t practice this, then we can’t learn from the mistakes we might make. We want to be as prepared as we possibly can.”
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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