The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office and Greenville County School District held joint active shooter training Wednesday afternoon.
This training was a rare opportunity for school staff to gain real-life training, which was a major goal according to Greenville County Superintendent Dr Burke Royster.
“The biggest lesson we took away from Tanglewood after all the debriefing; the biggest takeaway was how important training is. That was the biggest takeaway.”
Royster explained that the Sheriff’s Office and School District also have a partnership for an enforcement unit that is signed exclusively to Greenville County Schools.
The unit is funded jointly by the Sheriff’s Office and School District and will have a school resource officer in every Greenville school this year, now including elementary schools.
“As educators, we’re called to ensure that our students leave us prepared for college and for being career-ready,” Dr. Royster said. “But there can be no greater responsibility than the one we have for ensuring their safety.”
Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said that training was one of the most notable topics that emerged following debriefings after the Tanglewood Middle School shooting earlier this year.
“Well the last thing you want to do is surprise anybody,” Lewis said. “From talking to the teachers at Tanglewood Middle last year and going through the debriefing process, one of the things they really were quite terrified to be quite honest, that this had happened in their school, but they relied on their training.
Lewis continued, “Hopefully today this just helps enable us to do some training with them, some universal training, again so they know who the deputies are responding, they have some level of comfort and know what our expectations are. And we need to know the layouts of the school, and we need to know what is their plan for securing those students when these lockdown drills occur.”
You can listen to the full interviews with both Sheriff Hobart Lewis and Superintendent Burke Royster below:
