‘Active shooter’ drill held on GNTC’S Catoosa campus
A damp and eerie morning in Northwest Georgia set the scene Nov. 30 for an “active shooter” drill held on the Catoosa County Campus of Georgia Northwestern Technical College. Local and state authorities from multiple departments, as well as more than two dozen students, took part in the live exercise.
“Our students got a real opportunity to take part in a hands-on emergency situation right on our campus,” said GNTC Emergency Medical Technician Director Claudio Leyssens.
Just after 10 a.m. Nov. 30, it would only take a pair of gunmen a few seconds to make their way through the campus lobby and up a flight of stairs. As soon as the first shots rang out, the feeling that this was still just a practice drill immediately disappeared. From the parking lot, you could see the gunmen in the windows going from room to room. The feeling of a drill was over.
The sounds of weapons discharging their ammunition throughout the Ringgold complex quickly sent emergency workers and student participants hurrying to their roles in the emergency drill. Within minutes, the first responders would arrive and begin the search for the gunmen. Although it was just a practice run, it would have been hard to make it feel more real.
“This is the age we live in,” said Georgia Northwestern Technical College Police Training Coordinator Gary Mcconathy. “These sort of drills are a necessity to help protect us from dangerous events. After the shootings that have made headlines across the country over the past few years, we have to do our part to not only help us be prepared, but to allow our local authorities an opportunity to train in a true-to-life exercise.”