For the past three days members of the Riley County Police Department, Manhattan Fire Department, and Riley County EMS have been working together in a training exercise at Marlatt Elementary School. The training served as a way to streamline inter-agency cooperation during high stress and dynamic emergency responses.
“The days have gone well,” said Battalion Chief Mark Whitehair. “There’s been a lot of good interaction between agencies which is ultimately the overall goal of what we’re doing here today. Every time we do this it keeps getting better. You can see it in the crews how much they like working with each other. It’s a high stress environment, but they’ve all done a great job coming together and getting the job done.”
Both students and teachers at USD 383 were on hand to spectate or even participate in the exercise, getting an up close look at what to expect in the case of an emergency.
“It’s interesting from an outsider point of view,” said Michele Jones, Director of Communications and School Safety for USD 383. “You see the leadership really coming through and people taking charge. As a school district person, that makes me feel good knowing that community responders are stepping up and taking control.”
This is the second year the three agencies have come together for active violence training, which is something that provides a little extra peace of mind to students, teachers, and their families here in Riley County.
“It’s very special because nobody else does it throughout the state,” Jones said. “For us as the school district, we’re the beneficiary. We get all of these emergency responders into our building and get familiar with the building, so if something were to happen here, they’ve been here. Selfishly, I will provide them a school every single summer to practice in because I want them to be familiar with our schools. If something happened in one of our buildings their cooperation and working together is going to save lives and in the end that is what really matters.”
In the first two years of this exercise, emergency responders and USD 383 officials have utilized locations at Eisenhower Middle School and Marlatt Elementary School, and plans are already being made to do it all again at a new location next year.
“It takes a lot of planning,” Whitehair said. “We’re already planning for next year’s exercise that we’re going to do. It just takes a lot of coordination, preparation, and a lot of training as individuals so when we do come together everything works like it’s supposed to and we have a good outcome.”
RCPD, MFD and EMS will perform next year’s exercise on July 18th.