Tuesday morning was a busy one for emergency response training in Waco, with separate exercises for Baylor University and Waco ISD.
About 150 public safety personnel from 19 local and federal agencies descended on Baylor for a full-scale active threat simulation that brought out helicopters and boats. Just down the road, representatives of every Waco Independent School District campus made their way to University High School for training on reuniting students with their guardians in the aftermath of an emergency.
Mark Childers, the Baylor University associate vice president for public safety and security, talks about Tuesday’s large-scale active threat training on campus.
At Baylor, the Baylor Department of Public Safety led first responders from more than a dozen local and federal agencies in the exercise that included a simulated active shooter in and around the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center.
Participants acted as victims, some sprayed with fake blood, while others acted as witnesses or bystanders.
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A law enforcement officer acted in place of a shooter, pretending to engage a few mock victims outside the law school before making his way into the building, eventually ending up in a simulated hostage situation in one of the school’s conference rooms. Responding officers started arriving minutes after the mock shooter, at first a couple Baylor police patrol units, followed by a multitude of police cars and ambulances. As they arrived, officers tended to the mock victims before entering the building to practice tactics used to engage an active threat.
Later, several mock victims were transported to the parking lot of McLane Stadium, some in golf carts and others by boat, where several helicopters landed to transport them.
A Baylor police officer tends to people portraying victims in Tuesday’s exercise. The simulation began with an official portraying an active shooter driving a car into two mock victims in front of the law school building before making his way into the building.
Participants were instructed to act as realistically as possible. Mock victims could be heard screaming from inside the law school, while others limped away from the building into the waiting hands of EMS personnel.
Having live actors during a simulation is paramount, said Mark Childers, Baylor associate vice president for public safety and security. The actors make the situation as realistic as possible, which better equips officers for responding to the real thing.
“You’ve got to have that real-life screaming and yelling, all that external stress that was put on the officers and EMS and fire as they arrived — stress inoculation, being exposed to that and operating in that austere, chaotic environment,” Childers said.
Tuesday’s training was the second large-scale active threat training Baylor has held. Last year’s training at Kokernot Hall took place one day after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde. Childers said the planning for the joint training took about eight months.
First responders tend to a mock victim in front of the Baylor Law School building during Tuesday’s active threat training exercise.
A Waco SWAT officer prepares to enter the Baylor Law School building during an active threat training exercise Tuesday. The training was the second large-scale training Baylor has held and included around 150 personnel from 19 public safety agencies.
In addition to the many first responder agencies, police and public safety representatives from several Big 12 schools, including Brigham Young University, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, Texas Christian University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma, were invited to watch the training.
Childers said the training is part of an effort to constantly improve public safety.
“We really pride ourselves on earning that respect, constantly being the tip of the spear pushing to be better, faster and stronger every day,” Childers said. “We’ll evaluate the things that we did right, and we’ll evaluate the things we did wrong. And the things that we did wrong, we’re going to improve upon. So next year, when we come together, we’ll improve upon them. But I promise you, we’re going to find things, weaknesses, next year when we do it again, but that’s the whole goal.”
Waco ISD
Both Monday and Tuesday, staff members from each Waco ISD school took part in reunification training at University High, given by the I Love U Guys Foundation and Education Service Center Region 12. After classroom training Monday, live simulations Tuesday included staff members rotating through the roles of teachers, parents and students in several emergency scenarios that would require the evacuation of students from a school.
Ellen and John-Michael Keyes started the I Love U Guys Foundation in 2006 after their daughter, Emily, was killed in a school shooting, and the organization’s name is inspired by text messages she sent that day.
Monday’s classroom training instructed teachers on the Standard Response Protocol the foundation has taught at schools all over the country, adjunct instructor Jim French said. Tuesday’s live training allowed staff to put the previous day’s instruction into action.
This week, staff members from each Waco ISD school took part in reunification training at University High School.
The live drills represented the final piece of the district’s plan for training staff to respond to emergency situations, which also include fire and evacuation drills, said Suzanne Hamilton, Waco ISD’s executive director of student services. A hoax call in September falsely reporting an active shooter at Waco High School opened many eyes to the need for training in emergency situations, and the district wanted to make sure staff were comfortable in their responsibilities for an emergency, Hamilton said.
“Whether I’m a teacher, whether I’m a custodian, whether I’m the principal, whether we work downtown, we all need to be better prepared for that,” she said. “Our largest high school was affected by that. We had great response from our emergency management, from our police. Everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do. But for everyone else in the district, I think they were like, ‘Oh wow, it really can happen here.’”
Waco ISD staff portraying parents work through a post-emergency family reunification drill Tuesday at University High School. Staff members from each school in the district took part and will train others at their schools.
Hamilton said teams of staff members from each school in Waco ISD were present for the training, and the teams will return to their respective schools to determine the best course of action for training staff there.
Both Hamilton and French said the live simulations better equip staff as the live drills show them exactly what they need to do in an emergency.
“When you actually physically walk through and experience some of these activities, it gives you a whole different context,” French said. “You can think on paper and you can plan on paper. But when you get into the physical environment, the proximity, the space, the interaction with people makes a big difference in how you would respond and how parents will respond too. It gives them another centering point to understand how to do this, because this walkthrough paints a great picture.”
Waco ISD staff portraying concerned parents are met at the front doors of University High School by other staff members taking part in a post-emergency family reunification exercise Tuesday. The day’s exercises followed classroom instruction on the procedures Monday.
Waco ISD staff portraying parents work through a post-emergency family reunification drill Tuesday at University High School. Staff members from each school in the district took part and will train others at their schools.
