Crestwood hosts Violent Intruder Training session

By Nate Troy

Sports Editor

 

CRESCO - With the hopes that it is never needed, Crestwood High School hosted a Violent Intruder Training session  supported by Eagle Ridge Tactical and Consulting on Wednesday, Nov. 21, to prepare teachers and administrators and instruct them what to do if this scenario arises.

Crestwood Superintendent Ted Ihns explained this session was necessary because the state of Iowa requires the school to have emergency plans in place to deal with an active shooter and approved by the school board by June 2019.

During the session on Nov. 21, the Howard County Emergency Management, the City of Cresco Law Enforcement, Emergency Management, and Tim Felton and Rick Busch of Eagle Ridge Tactical and Consulting took part. Part of the training includes informing Crestwood faculty and staff what to do and how to act in case a violent intruder with a gun enters the building.

“This is the first time we’ve done these drills since I’ve been here,” Ihns said. “We want our faculty and staff to be prepared in case an unfortunate incident would happen. We want people to be prepared so they will make the right decisions. The session included informing people about the history (of school shootings) and going over different types of scenarios.

“Even though the session is required by the state, we want everyone to be prepared for an emergency. We want people to know the processes and procedures to make sure everyone is safe,” Ihns said.

Ihns noted that Chief of Police Tim Ruroden and Darrell Knecht of Howard County Emergency Management assisted with the presentation to teachers and answered questions.

“We need to be prepared,” Ihns said. “We need to go through the session and practice what we would do so we have a plan in place. We want to have a knowledge of what could happen so we will know how to react. It’s important to practice these scenarios even though we hope we never have to go through them (in real life),” Ihns said.

Tim Felton of Eagle Ridge Tactical and Consulting discussed some shooting scenarios with teachers in the classroom. He enlisted teachers Nick Ferrie, Chris Lentz and Paula Galvin to portray potential shooters during a re-enactment of a possible shooting event. After the event, he took questions from the teachers and gave them suggestions about how to deal with potential shooters.

There will be another Violent Intruder Training session at Crestwood on Jan. 2.