Riverside Sheriff’s Department partners with DSUSD for active shooter training
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is preparing for the new school year. It teamed up with Desert Sands Unified School District for active shooter training at La Quinta High School.
Related: Embedding with Palm Springs police during active shooter simulation
Incoming high school freshman Jazmine Recinos was one of the Palm Desert Sheriff's Explorers who role-played as a student.
"I feel like this is a fear that every student has now," said Recinos. "It's not entirely like, impossible... Students can't mentally prepare themselves for this either. So it's just really sad knowing that this is how things are."
It's a fear the Sheriff's Department is working to get ahead of. Before each scenario, deputies got debriefed. Sergeant Kyle Lafond helped organize the training. Deputies faced students role-playing to make it as real as possible and used fake ammunition.
"We go over recent events that happened, what other departments did wrong, what we've done wrong in the past, learn from the mistakes," said Lafond. "We are going to train, and we are gonna become proficient at it; god forbid it ever does happen."
As the district's information officer, Mary Perry would be the main point of contact for families in a real crisis.
"We know it's real. We know it's something we need to be prepared for. So we need to face that and do what we can to be as prepared as possible," said Perry.
Lafond has the following message for parents:
"The message I would have for them is that we are doing everything that we can on our part in law enforcement to keep their kids safe," said Lafond.
The training for deputies doesn't end here, with monthly training on various disaster scenarios.
"It does make me feel a little bit safer that these officers are having these trainings, so they could get an idea of what to do if this were to actually happen," said Recinos.
Different deputies will be at the school doing the training Thursday. The district said it will train students and staff once classes start next month.
