Active shooter training set for next week

If you pass by the school campus on Wednesday, or see more emergency vehicles than usual on the streets of Sundance, don’t worry.

It’s all part of the large-scale active shooter training scenario that will be taking place both on and off campus.

“You’re going to see things that are not normal,” warns Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Robinson.

This might include, for example, a helicopter, people wearing bright vests, students leaving the building en masse and “injured” victims being transported to the hospital.

It’s nothing to worry about, says Robinson. On the morning of May 10, numerous agencies will be involved in an exercise that’s essentially a “stress test” of the local response to a real active shooter situation.

It’s a continuation of several years of active shooter training within schools, agencies and businesses and response training for local law enforcement. The focus, says Robinson, is on identifying any shortcomings that remain and testing everyone’s capabilities.

It could be very easy to be fooled by events as they unfold.

“We’re trying to make it as realistic as possible,” Robinson says. The more realistic the scenario, the more real the response from students, staff and agency members involved in the training and the more everyone will learn.

“We also want to evaluate how our training has been going and validate what we’ve been doing.”

This is why, for instance, a certain number of actors have been recruited to play victims, and will use makeup to simulate their injuries.

However, Robinson stresses, “You don’t need to be concerned about anyone’s safety, because that is what we are concentrating on more than anything else.”

The training will begin mid-morning and is expected to be complete around lunchtime.

It will include an active shooter scenario on the campus to allow Sundance High School to practice its response and a number of “injuries” to allow Crook County Memorial Hospital and Black Hills Life Flight to test their capabilities.

Involved agencies and locations include Sundance Fire Department, Crook County Sheriff’s Office (including Dispatch), Sundance EMS, Crook County Memorial Hospital, Crook County Emergency Management, Wyoming Highway Patrol, Black Hills Life Flight and, of course, Sundance High School.

Signage will be visible on the morning of the exercise outside the high school parking lot and on Cleveland Street, as well as at Central Office.

Citizens should not experience disruptions other than additional traffic. Communications will not affect the 911 emergency line.