With the approach of the new school year, Boise school resource officers (SROs) are preparing for active shooter scenarios by participating in a specialized training program designed to simulate real-life school shootings.
Officers from various agencies around the state gathered at the Boise Police Department Training Facility for a three-day event full of scenarios allowing officers to perfect their response during a shooter event.
Captain Spencer Fomby, head of the Boise Police Department’s training, education and development division, said that 20 school resource officers took part in a variety of exercises that honed their physical and mental skills.
Training activities included breaching locked and barricaded doors and running through an active shooting simulation within a replica hallway and side rooms.
The training also emphasized how to identify subjects who are active threats and to ensure that law enforcement personnel have access to and know how to use the appropriate equipment and medical kits.
“The officers have to understand the principles of active shooter response. Some of that requires classroom training. But the real nuts and bolts are that they have to get out and understand the physical skills,” Fomby said. “The only way to really perfect that is to get out and physically do all the tasks we expect them to do.”
Fomby said that the department has emphasized the importance of active shooter training in schools since 1999, after the Columbine High School shooting left 15 dead.
All officers in the department must undergo annual active shooter training drills, but Fomby said that SROsreceive additional training since they are often the first line of defense.
“We recognize that that’s a really daunting situation where they may have to make decisions and go and try to engage that shooter by themselves,” Fomby said. “So we’re really focused on making sure that they have an understanding of the skills they need and they can perform those skills under stress. To go in, identify the potential threat and then mitigate it.”
The specialized training program was developed by FEMA as part of a school shooter management course that was sent to the BPD and other agencies this year.
Officer Kari Fratusco, a 17-year SRO at Lowell Scott Middle School in Boise, took part in the training.
“We have to make sure that we as officers are prepared, and we have to make sure that the staff in the schools and the students are also prepared,” she told The Idaho Press.
The training comes after the school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that shook the nation and claimed the lives of 22 people.
While an SRO’s primary duties are building relationships with students and assisting them with their day-to-day life, they recognize the need to prepare for school shootings that are becoming increasingly common.
“What this does is try to prepare us for the worst situation possible,” SRO TyJuan Lynn from Timberline High School said following the training on August 10. “I don’t think there’s a right answer for how we can be prepared for everything. But as long as we train and we do it regularly, I think that it will give us the best chance to handle any situation that is thrown at us.”
