LeeAnne Pettey, left, and Jerry Reeves participate in an active shooter drill at Hartselle Junior High Friday. | Brent Maze

Hartselle City Schools will be better prepared to deal with a shooting incident, if one should occur in the future, thanks to four hours of active shooter training, which was conducted at Hartselle Junior High School Friday.

The training included a live fire mock drill that had school personnel, working in pairs, charging down the hallway, ducking into a classroom and firing paint ball bullets from special handguns at a simulated intruder.

Another phase of the drill tasked participants to test their skill at locking a classroom door under a time constraint.

The training was provided by a group of highly-trained officers with the Lee County Sheriff’s Department. This group consists of nationally certified TASRO instructors who specialize in training school resource officers and conducting active shooter training for school throughout the country.

Hartselle school administrators, central office personnel, school safety committee members and Hartselle Police officers participated in the training.

The instructors used the technique “Hide, Run Fight” during the training exercise.

“The purpose of the training was not to teach principals and teachers how to use a firearm but to familiarize them with what to expect from law enforcement officers when they enter a school building to apprehend the perpetrator of a shooting incident and protect the lives of students and school personnel,” said Jerry Reeves, safety director for the Hartselle School System.

“This is the first safety training of this type we’ve had,” Reeves pointed out, “but it was excellent.” The instructors are very good at what they do. Although the State Department of education doesn’t require active shooter training, it highly recommends this group, and all school systems are required to have a current safety plan in force at every school.”

Reeves sad Friday’s training started with a series of films and lectures pertaining to school safety plans, Following the live fire drill, a debriefing was held to give participants a chance to ask questions.