Schools and law enforcement hold safety training in Lind and Ritzville

As active shooter situations continue to make national headlines, schools across the country are trying to prepare for such scenarios. In eastern Adams County, both the school districts and law enforcement are holding their own training events to stay prepared.

The Adams County Sheriff's Office hosted officer training at the Lind-Ritzville Middle School in Lind on Oct. 19. The training involved all deputies from the Sheriff's Office as well as officers from the Ritzville Police Department and the Washington State Patrol.

Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner spoke to the Lind Town Council earlier this month to discuss the training. He said he hopes to expand the training sessions in the future.

"After this one, we are going to try to do it throughout the year involving more agencies," Wagner said. "If something unfortunate happens here, we want everyone who comes to know what we are going to do. These things are rapidly changing. Active shooters, depending on how you look at it, are being perceived as a little more common because of the news media, but the reality is we want to be ready for it."

Wagner said if an active shooter scenario happens in Adams County, law enforcement from all over the area will come to assist. He says the goal of the training is to get everyone on the same page.

The training is only for law enforcement, it is not to train schools or students how to react to active shooters. However, such training that includes teachers and students is also taking place.

Lind-Ritzville Schools superintendent Don Vanderholm says the schools have been holding table-top training on how to respond to active shooters for awhile. On Oct. 29 in Ritzville, and on Oct. 30 in Lind, walk-through drills will be held.

"Last year we updated our whole safety plan and we have been drilling since then," Vanderholm said. "We are mostly focusing on threat scenarios. That is the biggest concern people have, and rightfully so. We still have to do fire and earthquake training and all those things. But we have focused on trying to improve threat response."

Wagner said that while schools are in charge of making their own plans and deciding how they are going to respond to a threat, his office is willing to offer support to help ensure everyone is on the same page. Vanderholm said law enforcement support has been very crucial.

"We've been working with Adams County law enforcement, local Ritzville Police and some with the Washington State Patrol as well," Vanderholm said. "I think it's essential that they know what we're doing. They are our response team. They are really the experts. It will be nice having them observe our training."

Vanderholm says while he hopes to have further training sessions involving actors in the future, this first session will be small and simple.

"We're not going to go full scale and blow it out," Vanderholm said. "We want to keep it low key this first time. Because usually people are apprehensive even if they know it is a drill. We want to set them up to learn and not make them feel like they are going to fail."

Vanderholm said the drills will be conducted through cards.

"We'll pass a card to someone in the office maybe, and it says, 'This is what you just found out,'" Vanderholm. "Then, they have to react. Law enforcement will be on hand to watch and act as dispatch for us."

Vanderholm said one of the improvements made in the safety plans is that every teacher is able to initiate the lockdown sequence, which locks doors and contacts law enforcement.

"We have to shatter the notion that you have to shut down a building only through the principal," Vanderholm said. "We need to be as fast a possible."