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Midway ISD staff trains for emergencies with scenarios

Posted at 3:26 PM, Aug 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-10 20:40:08-04

The Midway ISD staff saw four emergency scenarios acted out by students to prepare for potentially dangerous situations on Friday.

The scenarios included, a combative ex-wife trying to break into a classroom, a student having an allergic reaction, a student with a heart problem collapsing and someone shooting at students.

Woodway Elementary School teacher Joanna Mayberry said the staff knew the active shooter situation would take place, but it caught her off guard.

"A lot of chaos. You're looking at this kid that is yelling and this kid that is running in and then you saw the shooter walk through the hallway," Mayberry said.

Hewitt Police Chief James Devlin said the Woodway officer who pretended to be an intruder shot blanks in the hallway to make it as realistic as possible. 

"The idea was to bring a sense of reality to it. One, so people could hear what it sounds like. There may be individuals here who have never heard a gunshot, specifically inside this building," Devlin said.

Students provided input to the school administration on the type of scenarios that should be included in the training.

Student Walker Garrett, who pretended to collapse due to a heart condition, acted as a scenario that could happen to him. The Midway ISD sophomore was diagnosed with a heart problem at birth. 

"I wanted to overstimulate their senses so they can panic now whenever we are in the safe zone, in the safe bubble instead when it's the real deal and they have to perform 100 percent," Garrett said.

Midway Superintendent Dr. George Kazanas said after the learning experience, staff will discuss with each other ways to respond.

"They are going to be the first ones that react. It's very important of where we are and what happened in our most recent past and we want to keep the conversation going," Dr. Kazanas said.

Mayberry said this training was good to have.

"Us going through them and being on our own campus and knowing our own exits and safe places, it's going to be key in keeping everyone safe," Mayberry said.

Staff also learned how to use tourniquets to help stop the bleeding from someone injured. In addition, the staff talked about using an automated external defibrillator to help a student with a medical emergency. 

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