West Chester School Safety Officers Train For Emergencies

WEST CHESTER, PA— West Chester Area School District safety employees got special training in July at the Pennsylvania School Safety Institute to respond to emergency situations, including active shooters.

On May 8, the Pennsylvania School Safety Institute opened in Mechanicsburg, to address potential emergency security threats in schools throughout Pennsylvania.

West Chester school safety employees and school resource officers went to the training session to learn methods to deal with threatening situations following an uptick in school shootings across the nation.

Most recently, 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022.

On Feb. 14, 2018, a 17-year-old with an AR-style rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman High in Parkland.

West Chester Public Safety Supervisor, Rik Thorton said the experience was invaluable in honing conflict resolution strategies, critical thinking ability, and situational awareness skills.

“Running various scenarios with our designated school resource officers goes a long way toward building team cohesion and collaboration at all levels,” Thornton said.

The training institute has a new state-of-the-art 360-degree smart screen and multiroom school building simulator.

The participants learned Pennsylvania law for school security as well as hands-on methods to react to dangerous situations.

On the last day of the program, the team proceeded to the 360-degree simulator for hands-on training utilizing de-escalation tactics, critical thinking proficiencies, and situational awareness skills.

The final session was in the multiroom simulated school building for violent critical incident training.