Edinburg CISD kicked off a series of mass casualty trainings last weekend that focus on what to do in the event of a shooting or overdose and will continue through February.
Around 20 of the school district’s SWAT officers, wielding ballistic shields and tourniquets, ran through a variety of drills with dummy victims at Magee Elementary on Saturday, Jan. 21.
Officers were also trained and instructed in the use of Narcan as treatment for a potential overdose, something new for the district. The district has trained on responding to a school shooting before, but the emphasis on a tactical medical response — basically battlefield-style care — is new.
“Now we’re being trained to treat the wounded, which is a good thing for us. We want to make sure that we save lives in the process,” Edinburg CISD police Chief Ricardo Perez said.
Perez said district officers now carry tourniquets and blood loss prevention gear. He said that in the event of a school shooting or mass casualty event, time is precious. The training is about buying victims enough time to make it to professional medical care in the event of tragedy.
“The district’s growing,” he said. “So we want to make sure we have the well-trained staff to respond to anything that may be adverse or affect the safety of our students.”
Preparing for a mass casualty event that could impact the district’s over 34,000 students, Perez said, is a team effort that extends beyond the police department. He said personnel in the district’s nursing department and sports trainers have gotten medical training as well. Counselors, who would theoretically counsel victims and responders after an incident, were involved as observers.
“Everybody has a role in the emergency operations of a potential situation such as an active shooter,” Perez said.
Perez described the Narcan training as also being about reacting efficiently and buying time for people in a medical crisis.
He said the training is primarily a response to fentanyl.
“Fentanyl is a very dangerous drug, it doesn’t take much to pretty much kill you,” Perez said. “So with the training we received in Narcan, the medical components neutralize the chemicals in the body. It gives the person that’s overdosed on fentanyl a chance to survive for at least 15 to 20 minutes and you’re able to get the emergency medical attention so a person who’s maybe overdosed on fentanyl can survive.”
Perez said training will continue on weekends through February in roughly 20-officer blocks.
The district’s police department will be better equipped to respond to a potential shooting, a release said, having received a $365,000 grant to purchase 50 ballistic shields.
