Oakland County Teachers Will Receive Active Shooter Training

Teachers and school staff in Royal Oak and across Oakland County will receive expert training in the next two months on how to react in an active school shooter situation.

County officials said Friday that the Oakland County Sheriff's Office and the county's Homeland Security Division will conduct five training sessions for school personnel starting in two weeks. 

In addition, Sheriff Michael Bouchard will give active shooter presentations on site at various schools in the county.

Bouchard has received numerous requests for the presentations, he said.

"Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly, which requires people on the scene to be prepared both mentally and physically while waiting for law enforcement to arrive,” Bouchard said in a statement. 

The training is in response to the shooting tragedy last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. 

“Dec. 14, 2012 is emblazoned on our memories forever,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said in a statement. “Many died in the Newtown, Conn. tragedy. But many others survived because teachers knew just what to do with a shooter in the building.”

After the shooting in Newtown, leaders from the county's Homeland Security division and Oakland Schools met to plan the upcoming large-scale training sessions.

In the Royal Oak School District, safety-related improvements are a priority among the projects that will be completed this summer with sinking fund revenue, according to Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin.

"As a district, we have protocols in place to protect all persons in our schools. These protocols are reviewed regularly, and will be reviewed again as we learn more about what occurred in Connecticut," Lewis-Lakin said in a statement sent to parents in December.