15-03-2025
Police train for school threats in Spartanburg
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) — Police in Spartanburg are making sure their School Resource Officers (SROs) are ready to respond to any situation.
'We need an SRO to the front office. I'm having a parent that doesn't want to leave,' an officer keyed in over a police radio Friday morning.
You never know what the call will be or when it will happen.
'Help!' shouted a man roll playing as a shooting victim.
'Where are they? Where are they?' shouted Lachelle Byrd, Spartanburg Police.
In the moments of heightened intensity, police said every second counts.
'The goal is to save lives,' said Major Art Littlejohn, Spartanburg Police. 'Our model always is [that] we are in the life-saving business.'
Littlejohn said Spartanburg and Inman Police were honing in on how they handle active shooters, irate parents, and any other possible school threats.
'The SROs, for the kids, they're seen as heroes,' said Littlejohn. 'They're larger than life, but they have a very important job.'
That job could mean coming face-to-face with a school threat, alone, while backup arrives.
'You've got to make a decision really, really quickly,' Littlejohn said. 'We say you've got to slow down to go fast because you've got to ask questions. What's really going on here?'
'My main train of thought is to try to get to the target as soon as possible and make sure I take in everything as I'm through,' said Lachelle Byrd, a Spartanburg School Resource Officer.
'Once we get to the threat of whoever is shooting or posing a threat at the school, we have to think about who might be injured in that matter and treat them accordingly.'
Byrd was one of the officers training inside Carver Middle School on Friday.
'You have to be able to see whether it's a phone or a gun,' explained one of the police trainers.
Police were given a scenario and had to think quickly. The only difference was that officers were using Simunition rounds.
'It's not going to look good if we shoot someone who has a cell phone or a person who is the hostage,' explained Littlejohn. 'So, we have to make those decisions very quickly because the things we do are life or death.'
Police said they only train the scenarios a few times a year. They gave 7NEWS a chance to see if we could handle the pressure.
'We are going to run through some scenarios again,' said Littlejohn, as he addressed a group of officers. 'You guys, be gentle.'
The truth is, I didn't know how to handle some situations, made some mistakes, did not talk through certain scenarios thoroughly enough, and, at times, was too quick or not quick enough to mitigate the threat. They're all steps police have to take when responding for help. However, the trained professionals knew how to handle it and are now even more ready to answer if a threat in Spartanburg arises.
'It's unfortunate when something like this could happen,' said Byrd. 'But our main priority is to make sure all of the teachers, students, faculty, and everyone inside of that building is safe as well as making sure the threat at hand is taken care of.'
According to Education Week, there were at least 39 school shootings in the country last year.
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