Real lock-down comes amid training for school threats

PARLIER, Calif. (KFSN) -- Parlier High School hosted an active shooter training today and got a very real surprise in the process. As the training started, actual reports of someone with a rifle made their way to the gymnasium, prompting a brief lockdown.

According to Parlier Police, a farm worker at a nearby orchard found a BB gun in the field behind the school. When a staff member noticed them walking with it, they called it in.

Parlier Police Sgt. David Cerda says that was the right thing to do, "Stay on the side of caution. Call it in and we'll determine if it's a threat or not. Everything went according to protocol."

It prompts the question, what would you do if a shooter came to your school or workplace?

Though already planned, Knowledge Saves Lives, a North Valley-based used the event to provide active threat safety training to school staff.

"The only thing we can really control is ourselves and that's getting training getting educated on how we can best respond to an active threat on school grounds," says instructor Rich Howard of Knowledge Saves Lives.

The company says its team has a total of 300 years of experience in law enforcement emergency response and violence suppression.

"It gives us a broad span of intelligence in the mission-critical knowledge that you need if you're going to train teachers or staff on a topic like this," says Howard.

During the training, a fake active shooter fired blank rounds. Howard explains why, "(it) creates a different degree of stress for them. The sound, the percussion in this environment and they get to see how they would react with a little bit more stress."

"I think it's important to build that memory of what it is you're supposed to do," said teacher Michael Moses. "When you're in a high-stress situation that training kicks in."

Teachers new to the experience say the training improved their situational awareness and taught them how to improvise weapons.