LIVINGSTON- Members of Livingston police, fire and hospital departments worked with the Park County Sheriff’s Office and Park High School to run emergency active shooter drills Friday.
The drill consisted of police rushing into the schools, locating and disarming the active shooter, assisting the injured and giving them medical attention. Injured actors were placed into an ambulance and transported to Livingston HealthCare.
Park High School Principal Lynne Scalia says she has been helping plan this event since last spring. Scalia says it is important to for the entire county to be prepared in case a school shooting did happen.
“Everybody is taking it very seriously. When you hear gunshots, even if you know it is a drill, it is pretty scary. Or you see smoke or you hear screams. People are, we all know this world we live in, how dangerous things can be,” said Scalia.
“It is very important to do things like this so we are prepared for any kind of event that may come up. It may not be an active shooter, it may be some other event that involves all the agencies like police, fire, and EMS and for us to train like this it is very important,” said Livingston Fire Rescue Fire Chief Ken MacInnes.
Police had on full gear including a mask and an actual rifle that shot ammunition similar to a paintball gun.
“The big thing is, having a drill like this is very controlled. It is a stress inoculation drill, so it allows everybody to experience the stressors of an event like this. An event like this without having to go through the event like this,” said Park County’s Sgt. Brad Bichler.
Students were given the day off from school and were not present during the drills.
