Wausa, Bloomfield Schools Hold Active Shooter Training

There is an active shooter in the building. What do you do? Hide? Run? Attack?

​The Wausa and Bloomfield School Districts held an active shooter training session, that included a seminar and role play scenario. Something that Wausa Teacher Shelby Wiebelhaus said opened her eyes about these types of situations.

“To know that what we were doing before hand is completely what we shouldn’t be doing was kind of a mind blower,” said Wiebelhaus.

Another teacher, Kyle Stevens experienced what it is like to stare down the barrel as a victim, and the interesting reaction after the shooter missed him and moved to a new target rather than fire again at Stevens.

“I actually felt fear. I felt like ‘oh here we go,’ and I watched him point the gun at me,” exclaimed Stevens. “I knew the scenario was happening logically in my brain, but that adrenaline hit me and I just turned and went the other direction as fast as I could. I could actually hear the air from the pistol kind of coming by my ear a little bit.”

The program is ran by Chad Sheehan, who has done these training sessions for around 18,000 people since the beginning of 2014. He says one of the biggest misconceptions involves the denial that this can happen to one’s self.

Sheehan explained, “One of the first hurdles to overcome is denial. This idea that it is not going to happen where we live. It’s a small town. It’s Nebraska. It’s Iowa. It’s not going to happen here. So that is one of the most difficult things to make people realize and face. It can happen anywhere.”

The best thing to do is prepare for the worst, and to just be alert in case the unfortunate scenario of an active shooter happens.