The Marietta City Police Department conducted active shooter training at Marietta High School on August 8th and 9th. The training was focused around Single Officer Response Active Threat training or SORAT.
According to Captain Ryan Huffman, the Marietta Police Department had one of their Patrolman attend SORAT instructor school this year to be able to help prepare for these no backup situations. “We realize in most circumstances if an incident were to occur that an officer will be responding by himself. We want to run our officers through a scenario in which they are responding alone so they know how to act.”
In addition to the SORAT instructor, there were three active SRT (Special Response Team) members and a site safety officer on hand to train those in attendance.
Officers who were on duty were able to rotate into the training throughout the 8 hour days to familiarize themselves with the unique layout of MHS. Any officer who was unable to attend the training will be able to work with School Resource Officer Rob Sury, to find another time to familiarize themselves with the building.
Huffman stressed that this was not their first active shooter training, and that this was not a response to an elevated threat. “We’ve had nothing to put us on alert, we just want to be prepared for the worst case scenario so we can be on top of our game.”
MHS was primarily selected for this particular training because of the unique layout and size compared to the other Marietta City School locations.
For MHS Principal, Chad Rinard, the training made perfect sense for the school and the Marietta Police Department. “The training allowed officers the ability to actively and mentally go through several scenarios, but more importantly it gave them the ability to get a chance to navigate the blueprint of the building.”
Rinard believes the experience was one of many steps the school district has taken to show that safety is a top priority. “Valuable information was obtained for everyone involved and we will continue to have conversations with Officer Sury to ensure that we can continue to create an environment that is safe for all of our stakeholders.”