Training Day: Simulated School Shooting at Fargo Davies

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We have become a country of shootings from schools to military bases to movie theaters.

Fortunately, the F-M area hasn’t experienced an active shooter situation but authorities are preparing for one in a simulation.

It’s every teacher and student’s nightmare that police brought to life at Davies… Three active shooters on campus.

While we hope something like this never happens in our community, one Davies teacher says he wants to prepare for the worst.

For Paul Kolesar, it hit close to home. This building that is very familiar to him was filled with adult volunteers in gory makeup. Children weren’t used because the simulation can be very traumatic.

“The training that’s involved is kind of what you resort back to in those panicking situations and hopefully this will help out. We’ve got fake blood and everything everywhere,” says Davies High School Teacher Paul Kolesar.

They faced challenges like locked doors and aiding the severely injured.

Fargo school officials have been setting this up for more than a year.

“We’ve seen across the country it can happen anywhere in a community. And I think as communities prepare for any kind of incident that might occur I think that’s the beauty of what’s happening today is you have multi agencies working together to talk about how you would handle something like this,” says Fargo Superintendent Jeff Schatz.

While he believes Fargo Public Schools are safe, he doesn’t want to be caught off guard.

“There’s no way for me to know whether or not it’s going to happen here. It’s just my duty to help make sure that we’re ready to respond for the public,” says Sgt. George Vinson of Fargo Police.

Police say the training done at the school can be applied to a shooter situation at other public places like a movie theater.

Davies was chosen because many first responders aren’t familiar with its layout.