Madera Unified School District holds training for active shooter situation

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Staff, students, Cal Fire crews, ambulance teams and Madera Police came together to prepare for something they hope will never happen: a school shooting.

The hours-long training took place at Madera Unified's newest campus, Matilda Torres High School.

Chris Anaya is a patrol sergeant with the Madera Police Department.

He says they want the training to be as real as possible.

"In our trainings we try to add multiple levels of stress, such as hearing the voice of screaming children actual multiple gunshots being deployed, all that factors in and can cause officers to feel that stress and that's how you are really gonna be able to respond to that situation when you have gone through that stress as close as possible." says Chris.

Dozens of students took time out of their winter break to participate.

Ingrid Sosa, is a senior at Torres High School.

Monday's experience taught her that communication plays a big role in a situation like this.

Ingrid mentions, "We know that this has been happening around the nation so it's important to be prepared. And we hope it doesn't happen but we know it might happen so it's important to know the protocols or what would be happening in case it did."

Lawrence Fernandez is the Safety and Security Director of the Madera Unified School District.

He hopes Madera Schools can serve as the example for keeping students safe across the state and the nation.

"We are only as prepared as we train so one of the ideas behind this is being as best prepared as we could be. So, we decided to have it during this time to make sure how our systems were working with our SRO's, our security team, with our premier law enforcement agencies, Madera PD and our Cal Fire," explains Lawrence.

The district will host two more trainings like this on Tuesday and Saturday.

Madera Unified plans to have all staff training later this month.