Pictured at right, CCSI staff member Patti Fahey tells Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing what she thinks she would do if she heard shooting from one direction during an active shooter training session at the school on Thursday. (Alan Dooley photo)

Active shooter incidents at schools, movie theaters and shopping malls have become frequent enough incidents in this country that training to respond to them is more prudent now than ever.

Staff and teachers at the Career Center of Southern Illinois, formerly Beck Area Vocational Center, east of Hecker took advantage of students being off Thursday to explore ways of protecting themselves and their students from such attacks.

A session was conducted by Monroe County Sheriff Neil Rohlfing and three of his deputies who have been specially trained to provide this type of program.

Training began after lunch, with CCSI personnel and county law enforcement personnel gathering in a classroom to discuss the subject and examples of responses.

It is routine for schools to conduct fire, earthquake and tornado drills, CCSI employees were told. But, for example, while the last fire death in a school occurred in 1968 in Chicago, active shooter incidents have taken dozens of lives since then.

“The very fact that people are thinking about what they would do is excellent,” Rohlfing told them.

Deputy Jason Ettling conducted the bulk of Thursday’s presentation, focusing on a program dubbed the “Four E’s: Educate, Evade, Escape and Engage.”

Deputies took questions as they arose, discussed why people conduct active shootings – for attention, revenge or as predators – and how to defend against them.

Getting accurate word out quickly was discussed, as was how best to call for help from law enforcement.

Securing rooms, escaping from a shooter — or as a last resort, engaging the criminal, were all discussed. While the deputies didn’t advocate making schools become armed camps, they pointed to yelling, throwing objects and even employing fire extinguishers as ways to engage a shooter if that was the only response left.

Rohlfing acknowledged that CCSI was physically different than most schools because it consisted of several buildings with rooms with outside entrances versus clusters of rooms connected and accessed by halls.

Following the classroom session, CCSI staffers broke into groups and went on tours with one of four law enforcement officers.

On the tours, examples of how to secure a room with zip ties, brackets, even by shoving tables and desks against them, and how to balance staying in place versus escaping were discussed.

Simply walking through the process was described as being valuable several times over.

“If something happens in that direction, this is what I will do, where we will go,” one CCSI teacher was heard saying.

Another teacher said she would lead her students into an interior room and pull a book shelf down to jam the door shut.

How best to convey information to students was also discussed. Again, the value of simply talking these scenarios through in advance was emphasized.

For example, everyone carries phones today, and a first thought is to call family or friends in an incident. But being quiet may be necessary to hide and not draw attention.

“It is a good use of five minutes remaining at the end of a class period,” one deputy commented.

Anything that can be done to distract a shooter, cause them to alter their plan or be confused can buy time. Most incidents end relatively quickly, it was pointed out. And the shooter can never know how close armed law enforcement personnel are. So the more they can be delayed or diverted, the better survival chances are.

There is no doubt the afternoon was well spent at CCSI.  If such a terrible incident never occurs there, that will be best, but prudent preparation has been made and awareness is heightened.

All agreed that ignoring threats does not eliminate them, and CCSI staff certainly has not done that.

Rohlfing said his team is prepared to offer this same training to groups throughout the county, including businesses. He can be contacted at his office in Waterloo by calling 939-8681, ext. 236.