Active shooter training conducted at Princeton Senior High School

Aug. 29—PRINCETON — Like other educators across the nation, Mercer County teachers are learning more about how to deal with the horror of hearing that an active shooter is in their school.

Officers with the Princeton Police Department met August 23 with Princeton Senior High School's facility and staff to share lessons about reacting to active shooter situations. Melissa Clemons, a retired West Virginia State Police trooper who retired in 2018 after serving for 25 years, described the sort of information teachers would receive that day. Clemons was the school resource officer (SRO) for PikeView High School and PikeView Middle School before the Mercer County Board of Education gave her the opportunity to become the safety and security coordinator for the whole county.

Clemons said that she would be available for teachers and staff who had any concerns or ideas.

"I'm going to travel around. They asked me to go to each and every school," Clemons told the teachers gathered in the school's media center. "I know you have the Princeton PD here. They're wonderful, but if something big happens, I'll come, too. Basically, I'm here for you guys."

One new measure being taken is creating a uniform lockdown procedure for the entire school system, Clemons said. This would help with factors such as substitute teachers knowing the proper procedures to take at whatever school they're serving in that day. During lockdowns, teachers lock their classroom doors, close window blinds and take other steps including keeping students in their classrooms and out of the hallways.

Another item on the agenda involved showing teachers how to use a new measure to put security on their classrooms' doors. Active shooters seek out easy targets and do not want to spend time trying to open locked doors, Clemons said.

"What is an active shooter? An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in an confined area," said Lt. Derick Weatherly of the Princeton Police Department. "In a populated area, in most cases active shooters use firearms. There is no pattern or method they use to choose or select their victims. Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly. Active shooters are usually done in about 10 to 15 minutes."

Weatherly said he has taught other classes such as police procedures or using firearms, but active shooter lessons are different.

"We're here to kind of talk about a problem that I don't think can be solved, really," he said. "I don't want to upset anybody or get anybody scared. This is kind of, like, I hate teaching this class, I don't like it at all because it's not like defensive tactics where I can show you how to arrest somebody and three minutes later hey, I did it, yea! Or firearms. You go out on the range and say I can't shoot a gun. Well, three minutes later you're hitting bullseyes, you're doing good, but this class is a whole lot different."

Weatherly described different ways teachers and students can react when an active shooters is in their school. For example, they were advised not to pull a fire alarm during an active shooter emergency. Teachers were also instructed on how to cooperate with police responding to an active shooter situation.

The school system is working on other plans to keep focusing on safety in the schools and "make our polices better, make our procedures better," Clemons said.

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com