Shooter practice drill in MV
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MOUNTAIN VIEW — A heart-in-the-throat call on the scanner late Tuesday afternoon about shots at the MV K8 building and then the report of an explosion and critical injuries, brought to the Valley area the dread of school shootings which have happened across the nation.
But, this incident had forewarning and was staged as a practice to prepare for a major event such as this if something really happened. In fact, a post by the Uinta County Fire and Ambulance noted an active shooter drill was being conducted at the “K-8 Building in Mountain View,” and “Crews are training for an event that we hope never happens in our community but as always in emergency response, we train to be prepared for anything that may arise.”
The idea of arming teachers has been an on-going discussion in Wyoming and some area residents have filed suit twice in the Evanston area to stop the board’s decision of arming teachers. There have already been issues in Wyoming such as the one at Cokeville many years ago. School lockdowns and closed campuses have helped, but what happens if the unthinkable happens?
In the course of questions several months ago with Mountain View Mayor Scott Dellinger and the unease of, specifically of some in Mountain View, not wanting to arm teachers, Dellinger had stated the area still needed to prepare so if something of this type of calamity hit the area, there would be an adequate response to control and mitigate the problem.
In addition to the apprehension of the Mountain View district, some of the Lyman school district personnel have also expressed concerns in the past to the Pioneer about the district arming teachers and have been against the procedures.
During Tuesday’s practice, and the multitude of “copy” responses on scanner traffic, the group responded to the building, secured the building, entered the building called for ambulances and Med-Flight helicopters from Utah,
the ensuing action replicated the action, which would have occurred on a much longer timeline if an actual shooting incident and explosion had occurred. Following the incident, the crews entered the building for a de-briefing.