First responders hold active shooter drill at Indio High School
The Indio Police Department and Calfire held an active shooter training drill all day Tuesday at Indio High School. The drill was treated as authentic as possible, with full blaring alarms, simulated gunfire, and real tactical teams moving in trying to contain that fake threat. It was all in the name of training first responders how to be prepared just in case the real thing were to ever happen.
“Some of this stuff has to become so much muscle memory so the repetition is very helpful,” Indio Police Chief Mike Washburn said. “Every school here is different so we need to know how to access it if it’s locked down how do we get in those types of things.”
Mary Perry, spokeswoman for the Desert Sands Unified School District, said the training helps students and staff feel safe.
“The idea of something like this happening is all of our worst nightmare,” Perry said. “My comfort lies in knowing that we’re prepared, that our first responders are training that they have plans in place that they know how to react.”
Officials say this is just one of several training exercises they are planning for months to come in order to stay prepared and keep kids in schools safe.
“Although we pray and hope this will never occur in our city we have to be realistic and prepare for the worst – we hope we will never have to put this into real-life scenario,” Washburn said.
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