Summer break is quickly coming to an end for most students along the Central Coast, but for the teachers at San Luis Obispo High School these final remaining days are being used to prepare for a worst case scenario on their campus.
On Wednesday, August 20, an alarm will sound on the school grounds of SLO High signaling an emergency situation. In this case it will be a practice drill, simulating a gunman—or active shooter—is among them.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department has developed the training in response to a rash of similar real-life situations that have played out across the nation. Captain Chris Staley hopes the practice will give teachers the upper hand should they ever face such a scene.
"The training was designed to give the teachers and the faculty some skills that they could actually employ if something like this every happened, and give them an opportunity to have kind of an experience with it before it ever happened there so they had an idea of how they would react and what they should do if something like that occurred on our local campus." said Staley.
Simulated explosives and gunfire will be used as part of the training. Neighbors to the school may hear the alarms sound for roughly 15 minutes.