Lake Forest Park Police to stage full-scale training exercise Monday

What if a shooter gained access to an elementary school here? Would police, schools, and emergency services be ready to deal with the situation?

Lessons learned from actual cases from Columbine to Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook make it clear that agencies need to plan, prepare, and rehearse - and hope they will never need to use those skills.

Taking advantage of a staff work day and no school in session, the Lake Forest Park Police are leading a full-scale exercise on Monday, September 29, 2014 at Lake Forest Park Elementary, 18500 37th Ave NE, Lake Forest Park, from 7am to 5pm.

The School Active Shooter 2014 Exercise primary objective is to conduct scenario based training for fire and police on the topic of an active shooter at a school. This exercise has been in the planning stage since February, 2013.

Topics will include: 

1. Interoperability functions of fire and police; 
2. Implementation of the Rescue Team concept; 
3. Rapid evaluation, treatment and extrication of patients with life threatening injuries.

Rapid transportation of patients from the school to the Hospital will not be a function of this exercise.

The secondary objective of the exercise is to test and evaluate the major components of the Active Shooter Pre-Incident Plan developed jointly by the Northshore Fire Department, Lake Forest Park Police Department, Shoreline School District, Emergency Services Coordinating Agency (ESCA), along with NORCOM and Lake Forest Park Police Communication and Dispatch. Based upon the results of the exercise, the participating agencies will make adjustments to the plan as necessary.

Emergency response departments plan constantly for extreme situations but only stage full-scale training exercises about every five years.

The participating agencies are Northshore Fire Department, Lake Forest Park Police Department, Shoreline Police Department, Bothell Police Dispatch, Shoreline Fire Department along with other neighboring law enforcement and fire departments.

Lake Forest Park Elementary borders Ballinger Way, which is the main east-west route through Lake Forest Park.