Practice makes perfect and last week, in a determined effort to bolster school safety measures and better protect students and staff, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) conducted a four-day, scenario-based training to better equip Hillsborough County school resource deputies (SRDs), some of whom work at Plant City’s local schools, with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively respond to and neutralize threats in the event of an active shooter situation within school premises.
SRDs are the first line of defense against an active threat at schools and the in-depth training allows them to practice skills like efficiently clearing a room, effectively communicating using their radios, working to limit casualties and, ultimately, neutralizing an active threat.
“At HCSO there’s no greater priority than protecting our children,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister in a press conference on the campus of Newsome High School last Friday, where various simulation exercises and scenario-based drills were employed to enhance the realism of the training.
“This extremely rigorous training that they’re attending is solely focused on one thing: if there’s an active shooter situation at one of our schools to stop and neutralize that threat and be prepared to do it,” he said. “The only way to be prepared to do it is to be trained, the more we train the more prepared we are.”
As the seventh large school district in the country, the District serves more than 206,000 children at approximately 250 school sites. A state law, started in the 2018-2019 school year, provided for an armed, trained first responder on every school campus during the school day. In middle and high schools, that equates to a school resource deputy or officer from the sheriff’s office or Tampa Police Department. In elementary schools, an armed school security officer is on campus.
Upgraded security measures at school sites have included fencing, single entry and exit points, reminding teachers that every door has to be closed and locked, surveillance cameras and a Centegix Alert System that allows employees to call for help immediately with the touch of a button. The District has also invested in Stop the Bleed trauma kits that are strategically placed throughout campuses.
“I’m extremely proud and grateful to the School Board, the County Commission, our superintendent of schools and our chief of school security for making student safety the greatest priority,” said Chronister. “We’re ready.”
He also encouraged parents to take a moment before the school year starts to remind their children that while it’s okay to report suspected school-based threats by calling 911 or using the smartphone application FortifyFL, to refrain from making school-based threats. “When it comes to school-based threats, we send in the calvary regardless of the hour of the day, you can imagine how resource-intensive it is and consider the trauma that these students go through when we have to lock down a school,” he said. “Parents, we have to have these difficult conversations with our children as they start school.”