Active Shooter Training Set For Sparta Teachers Wednesday

The White County Schools annual active shooter training to take place Wednesday.

Sparta Police Officer Brent Copeland said ALICE training had been taking place annually for some seven years, preparing teachers to Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate.

“I would never in my lifetime have thought that we would have to have something like this,” Copeland said. “That the world would have gotten to this point where people are praying on innocent people, children, people in church. Just across the board.”

Copeland said he represents the law enforcement side of the training. He said Emergency Services Dispatcher Tammy Gongoware (sounds like “gong aware”) provides the emergency services side of training, informing teachers and school staff what 911  wants from someone on the ground in a live shooter situation.

Copeland said he will go in and do a walk through before providing training. He said he may take pictures to review strengths and weaknesses.

“Things they may not even have thought about,” Copeland said. “And I’ll see things that I’ve never thought about that they’ve already completed that makes things safer.”

Copeland said the end goal is to let participants know they can take steps to prevent injuries and fatalities.  He said if everyone is on guard and they have a mental playbook in their head for the various situations, everyone will be able to handle the situation.

“It just kind of gives them some ideas to go back and think about and work on,” Copeland said.

Copeland said he provides training throughout the City of Sparta, including churches, businesses, manufacturers, and healthcare locations. He said he is willing to provide customized training  fit to a location’s time constraints and needs.

“We can actually take it anywhere from an hour up to three or four hours,” Copeland said. “It depends on if they want different things going on. If they want scenarios and how in depth they want it.”