Threat training held at high school

An unfortunate reality in today’s world is the need for training to prepare for threats that might exist for students in local schools.

Aledo ISD hosted a training on Friday, June 2, for members of its own police department and members of neighboring first-responder organizations to prepare for potential threats.

Utilizing the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) program through Texas State University, first responders from several agencies participated in realistic scenarios involving threats that could arise in a school situation.

Aledo ISD Police Chief Fred Collie explained that the training program is multi-faceted.

“The nationwide training program is to respond to active threats, not just active shooters, because not everybody has a gun; it could be a knife, it could be a vehicle,” Collie said.

Participating in the training were personnel from Aledo ISD, Willow Park, and Hudson Oaks Police Departments; the Willow Park Fire Marshal’s office; Parker County Sheriff’s Office; and Texas Department of Public Safety. Two representatives of Christ Chapel West also participated in the training. A local business person participated as an actor, as did four students from Aledo High School: Logan Kasper, Claire Cash, Kiera Carter, and Rebecca Tschoepe.

The students played the part of classroom students in the training scenarios.

Instructors were DPS Trooper Phillip McKenzie. Don Feare of Parker County Sheriff’s Office, and Ryan Lingerfelt from the Aledo ISD Police Department.

The active threat training is not without risk. Collie explained to the student actors that there have been accidental deaths in trainings in other locations when live guns or ammunition were inadvertently used.

To guard against that happening in the local training, there were pat-downs and multiple personal checks to make sure no one had live ammunition or firearms in the training area.

In the initial scenario the situation was simply described as “a man with a gun” at the school. One-by-one, personnel were sent down the hallway on the second floor of Aledo ISD to assess the threat as adult and student actors played the roles of assailant and students.

Collie talked about the importance of the training not only to his own personnel, but from the neighboring agencies as well.

“One of the things I really like about this training and the people that we have attending the training is that we have responders from adjacent organizations,” COllie said. “And I know that if something goes sideways in one of our schools, it's not just going to be Aledo ISD PD responding. It's going to be other law enforcement agencies, other first responders, and the fact that we're all training the same way — we’re all on the same page — is going to benefit everybody.”