*Photo Credit: Channel 12 WBOY
TAYLOR COUNTY, W.Va. - Active shooter situations are more frequent than ever before, and for schools like Anna Jarvis Elementary safety is the number one concern.
Today the Elementary teamed up with the local police force to hold an active
shooter training session for the pilot of the new Code Red System.
Patrolman, Cole Durrett, said this is the pilot of the Code Red System.
“The unique thing about this is that we’ve partnered with a company called code red out of Buckhannon, and it’s a pilot program to where they essentially they have cameras set up in the school," Durrett said. "So they are going to be able to relay information real time to our chief, and then our chief is going to be able to relay that information to his team as we enter the primacies.”
Both school faculty and police force went through several different active shooter scenarios where they learned how quickly an average day can turn to devastation.
After the school is in lock down, police arrive on scene and begin to search for the potential suspect.
“We’ll get called like we’re getting called to an active shooter training," Durrett said. "As we show up on scene then we will um be made in contact with the chief and he’ll relay the information to what’s going on and we’ll proceed from there.”
After the suspect is caught and the premises is secured a Code Green announcement is made informing the faculty and students it’s safe once again.
On average the response time to an active shooter situation is 18 minutes, but with the new Code Red system the response time is about two minutes.
“seconds are lives in this case," Durrett said.
The superintendent of the school, Kathy Green, said she can now sleep a little easier.
“Between all the cameras we’ve installed, millions of dollars, all the time and effort, it will definitely pay off because I feel I can sleep better at night knowing my kids are safer," Green said.
The Code Red Remote Overwatch Support system will soon be active in all Taylor County schools.
