SYLVANIA, OH (WTOL) - Wednesday's shooting in Florida is prompting local school districts to talk about safety measures put in place for students, faculty and staff, one of those districts being Sylvania Public Schools.
"We can't say nothing wont happen in our schools, but we want to reassure our parents um that we have a lot of things in place to try to be as proactive as possibly," said Adam Fineske, Sylvania Public Schools Superintendent.
For the past five years, the school system has had a safety and security committee in place. That group is made up of teachers, administrators, school counselors, law enforcement and community members.
Through that committee, the district has developed a lot of different trainings, one of them being ALICE training, which prepares staff for any time of active shooter situation.
"Our teachers are trained every year all of our new staff members go through a half day training as part of our orientation into the district," Fineske said.
The key to any active shooter is to saving lives and prevent the number of casualties. The best way to do that is to escape to ran out," said Sergeant Greg Mahlman with the Toledo Police Department.
ALICE training involves a series of steps used to increase the chances of surviving a surprise attack by an active shooter. ALICE is an acronym that stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.
At Sylvania Schools, it includes a hands-on and power point learning session led by police.
The school system is also a big advocate for mental health awareness.
"We have a counselor in every one of our elementary schools, two in each junior high and four in each high school," said Fineske.
