In conjunction with the Cache County Sheriff’s Office, community police departments, and local emergency medical services teams, the Cache County School District practiced its emergency response protocols on Friday, June 14. Organized and led by the Cache County Sheriff’s Office, the training was designed to be as realistic as possible to help the District and other agencies fine-tune and practice their skills in the event of a school emergency.

The training, which was conducted at Green Canyon High School, involved a law enforcement officer acting as an active shooter inside the building while other officers practiced effectively entering, locating, and neutralizing the threat. The practice also involved volunteers who acted as wounded victims with varying degrees of injury severity to help officers effectively practice triage, first-aid, and life-saving measures. Cache County School District staff were invited to participate in the scenario or observe it live through a camera feed shown in the lecture hall at the school. 

District participants were encouraged to practice school emergency response protocols and communication methods. In addition to providing an opportunity to run through district response, the training also gave an increased context of how emergency scenarios unfold and what they look like from a law enforcement perspective. This experience reinforced the importance of emergency response protocols and provided an invaluable opportunity for staff to examine their roles and responsibilities as educators and administrators during a crisis.

Cache County School District is dedicated to ensuring the safety of its students in all scenarios. Executive Director of Student Services Alden Jack was impressed with the extensiveness of the emergency training and the unified effort of all parties involved. "This emergency response drill is a remarkable demonstration of the collaboration between the schools and our community agencies to ensure the safety of our students," Alden commented.

The Sheriff’s Office’s main goal for this year’s training was to improve and fine-tune incident command protocols, which dictate communication and collaboration efforts between the different agencies in an emergency to help reduce casualties and ensure the most effective response possible. Sergeant Reed Tanner of the Cache County Sherriff’s Department, who supervises all CCSD School Resource Officers, explained that the training helps ensure officers and other personnel are ready and capable of responding to these types of emergencies effectively. “We're making sure that we're hitting the benchmarks that are the expectation of our citizenry of Cache Valley and the leaders of our public safety organizations. We need to be hitting those benchmarks. We need to be able to respond capably,” Sergeant Tanner stated. 

The combined efforts of the Cache County Sheriff’s Department, Cache County School District, and other community organizations are a testament to the care and love the community has for its students and their safety. “We've always had really good relationships in partnership with the school district,” Sergeant Tanner remarked. “And to be honest, we feel strongly that our schools are the safest buildings in Cache Valley.”