WESLACO — What would I do? It’s a question parents may ask themselves when hypothesizing a nightmare scenario that’s now a stark reality: an active shooter situation in a school.
They got that question answered Thursday morning, when the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with the Weslaco school district, hosted a Critical Incident/Active Shooter Response training for parents.
According to Ricardo R. Garcia, a retired sheriff’s deputy and training instructor, the purpose of the training is to inform parents in the community about the protocols in place for crisis situations such as active shooters.
Although the training began around six years ago, Garcia has always felt that there was a missing piece to the emergency response puzzle. In fact, the 2022 school shooting at Uvalde only solidified this idea and motivated Garcia to expand the training to community members.
In Uvalde, parents of the children inside tried to rush the premises to get their kids during the deadly shooting that claimed 21 lives, 19 of whom were students and two were teachers, at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.
“I strongly believe that this training, this preparation for these critical incidents is in three parts. I think that it involves law enforcement, it involves the schools and the final part that I think has been missing in the equation has been the parents in the community,” Garcia said.
He hopes that these training will ease parents’ worries and educate them on a cooperative approach.
“We need to train and we need to give our parents in our community information that they need so that they know that there are texts coming in, there is phone calls coming in, there is a protocol, there is a procedure,” Garcia said.
“Unfortunately, our parents in our community … can end up causing more issues and more problems in the way that we properly respond to these sorts of crisis.”
Throughout the training Garcia explained the history of active shootings, emergency medical care, the police motto “Run. Hide. Fight.” and the Standard School Response Protocol.
For Garcia, the biggest take away for parents is understanding how they can support schools during crisis situations. In fact, he explained that for the training specific to parents the most important section is the protocol. That’s where he discusses the different drills practiced in schools.
“They’ll be able to understand what the drill was, why it took place, what the roles and responsibilities of the adults and the children were,” Garcia said. “It just kind of gives them that information.”
Yamilet Resendiz, 25, and her husband John Resendiz, 26, attended Thursday’s event because they have two daughters enrolled at Weslaco ISD schools. She explained that she felt it was their way of taking part in their daughters’ safety.
“When we were in school none of that happened, so it is very difficult for us to be teaching them that. Schools are supposed to be safe,” Yamilet said, adding that she tells her daughters to always follow the teacher’s instructions during emergency situations.
She explained that although a scary thought, it is important for her daughters to be aware of the possibility of a school shooting.
“I guess it’s something that they need to have in their minds daily — how to protect themselves and follow the rules,” Yamilet said.
Maria Cortes, 37, said attending the training alone is “hard and it’s scary.”
“You send your kids to school thinking they’re going to be safe, but with all this going on you’re always with that thought in your head; if they’re safe or not,” Cortes said.
Garcia, however, did his best to be a calm voice amid fears.
“We support our kids when they go to school, and we have to support our schools in how they help educate our kids. This is just one more facet that has unfortunately become necessary because of the things that have been going,” Garcia said.
