In what is perhaps a sign of the times, Douglas County prepared for the re-opening of school with an active shooter drill.
After the mass shooting at Florida’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School last winter, educators are on high alert. And in Douglas it’s not an abstraction: that’s where, last August, a former teacher of the year took a handgun to school and shot himself in the face.
So on Wednesday afternoon, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office staged a “large scale” drill, complete with a helicopter and hundreds of participants from multiple agencies, including police, fire and emergency medical personnel.
The exercise at Mason Creek Middle School had been in the works since January, said Sgt. Jesse Hambrick, of the Douglas sheriff’s office. The plot: armed intruders would enter the school and start shooting; victims would be evacuated by air.
These other agencies were involved, too: Douglas County Fire Department, Douglas County Board of Education, Douglas County Emergency Management Agency, Douglas County Emergency 911, Douglas Wellstar Hospital, Douglasville Police Department, Georgia Emergency Management Agency, Georgia State Patrol, Cobb/Douglas Public Health, Airmethods and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.
Students will return to the Douglas County School System on Aug. 8.
