Safety at schools has been a priority for decades. The first "school shooting" most remember is the Luke Woodham case at Pearl High School in October 1997.
On Tuesday the Marion County School District, the Marion County Sheriff's Office and other first responders conducted an active shooter drill at West Marion High School and West Marion Elementary School.
There have been 118 active shooter incidents on K-12 school grounds since Columbine in 1999. Nearly 60% of these have taken place at high schools.
"As we have seen all around the country," Marion County Sheriff Berkley Hall said, "this type of training is important. We all think it won't ever happen to us. It can. Any time you practice like this, you learn. We hope if it ever happens here, we will know what everybody needs to do and how to do it."
First responders involved included the sheriff’s office, the Columbia Police Department, the Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop J, Foxworth Volunteer Fire Department, Mississippi Emergency Management, the Marion County School District's school resource officers and the Marion County Special Weapons and Tactics unit.
"As a district, we focus on academics, but safety is important, too," MCSD Superintendent Michael Day said. "We appreciate all of the first responders involved. I can't say thank you enough to them. We plan to have these in all of our schools throughout this year. We had a good experience today. We hope to have even better ones in the future. There are things we need to revisit, and we will debrief these things with the Marion County Sheriff's Office. In these situations, time is of the essence. We need to get the response time down as quick as possible."
Day said the district's two school resource officers are an important component of the process to protect students and staff.
"Quick integration and familiarity between law enforcement and our SROs is important," Day said.
The drill lasted from 2 p.m. at the announcement of a code red for staff until 2:42 p.m., when the announcement that the drill was completed was made.
Other drills will be conducted at the other school campuses, and the public will be notified ahead of time.
