An event that was scheduled well before the late August hostage situation involving a disgruntled freshman student at Philip Barbour High School will be more important than ever because of that event, Harrison County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Manchin said recently.

 

According to Manchin, Bridgeport High School will be the site of a “live shooter” simulation event on Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. For those concerned about the event taking part during a school day, Manchin said there will be no students in classes that day in Harrison County. However, he said some students will take part in the “live shooter” event that will involve law enforcement agencies led by the Bridgeport Police Department.

 

“We’re doing this in conjunction with the City of Bridgeport Police and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department and we’ll be doing it at more than one school,” said Manchin. “We’ll have a similar event at Liberty High School that day as well.”

 

The live shooter event isn’t the first one involving the Bridgeport Police Department. They have had more than one in recent years, including after-hours training at the Meadowbrook Mall. This event, Manchin said, will help with how to react in light of the recent situation at Philip Barbour where a student held a teacher and a classroom of students hostage before turning himself in.

 

“What happened in Barbour County is every superintendent’s, principal’s, teacher’s and parents’ worst nightmare,” said Manchin. “If anyone thinks it can’t happen here, what happened at Philip Barbour shows that’s not the case. It can happen anywhere. That’s why we prepare.”

 

Bridgeport High School Principal Mark DeFazio is pleased that the event is taking place at his school. He believes an exercise such as this could have huge ramifications if an unlikely situations occurs similar to the one recently at Philip Barbour.

 

“You can’t train enough and once again if it happens, and again, hope it never happens, you don’t know how to react and respond,” said DeFazio. “This training will provide a level of protocol and if you have protocol in place it can help create a reaction and a response to help the situation. Knowing how to act accordingly to a hostile situation, whether it involves weapons or another threat, is a valuable tool that this exercise will provide.”

 

Manchin said covering every possible scenario is difficult.  He said the Philip Barbour situation was extremely hard to deal with for one key reason.

 

“When the student is the perpetrator that really makes it difficult,” said Manchin. “We talked about how would we have handled it and I feel comfortable that if similar incident takes place here we’ll be trained to best address it. This event will go a long way toward helping in that capacity.”

 

Manchin said the program is part of the Harrison County school system’s ongoing work with crisis management plans and the school safety plan. He said the process with the plan continues to evolve as it has been shaped over the course of the last several years. He said that as part of that plan the Department of Homeland Security has blueprints for every school in the state that includes vulnerability assessments.

 

“That information is on a secure Web site,” said Manchin. “In the event something happens, all first responders would have access to that Web site.”

 

In the best case scenario, Manchin and DeFazio – and all others involved with the education system from those teaching to the students – won’t have to worry a threat. However, training exercises such as the one scheduled to take place will continue into the future. DeFazio is glad to know that.

 

“We hope we never find ourselves in that type of situation like you had at Philip Barbour because you don’t know how people are going to react. We never expect it to happen here, but I can assure you the folks there never expected it either,” said DeFazio. “Even if you don’t think it’s going to happen, you have to be prepared nevertheless. Again, I don’t think you can ever train enough.”

 

Editor's Note: Top two photos - by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com - were taken at a Live Shooter event at the Mall in 2012. Bottom photo is of Dr. Mark Manchin.