Members of Ashland's Safety Forces faced a situation today that, down to every police officer, highway patrol trooper, sheriff's deputy, firefighter and E.M.T., they hope they never really will. That's to come face to face with an active shooter. Some 140 people were involved in conducting the largest ever training exercise in Ashland County, staged this morning at Grace Church and Ashland Christian School on West Main Street in Ashland.
Ashland County Sheriff's Deputy, K9 Handler and Law Enforcement Instructor Curtis Hall led the massive session, first holding a mini-demonstration for members of the media. Hall explained that the purpose of the training is to introduce safety forces to the chaos and confusion, the tough jobs they'll face and traumatic things they'll potentially see should an active shooter attack; but doing so in a controlled environment. Hall went on to say that this exercise will feel "very real". Why use Grace Church and Ashland Christian School for this training? Hall would not give all the reasons but did say size of the campus and the location worked for the simulation.
Assistant Ashland Fire Chief Dan Raudebaugh added that this exercise was to also test the dispatch center, how they function and dispatch the different agencies to respond and work together. "We'll also be testing our Rescue Task Force Teams", said Raudebaugh, "There are multiple objectives we're testing today so we are adequately trained to do our jobs".
This training drill, two years in the making, was launched by Sheriff E. Wayne Risner in the wake of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary May 24th ,2022. On that day and 18 year old former student of that school entered the building and fatally shot 19 students and two teachers. Seventeen others were wounded but survived.
Sheriff Risner, Deputy Hall and others organizing this large scale training event had determined there is a need for such an effort in Ashland and noticed a trend of active shooters move to communities like Ashland.