LACCD ramps up drills

The district is preparing its campuses in case of an active shooter incident.

By Gabriel Arizon, Editor-in-Chief

In an effort to prepare faculty, staff and students in the event of an active shooter, LACCD is continuing to its training and lockdown drills at all nine campuses.

According to a document from LACCD Safety and Emergency Services Manager William Ramirez, the district is planning active shooter training and several mandatory drills for the rest of the school year with the purpose of increasing awareness of emergency procedures. This is in support of an October 2019 resolution approved by the Board of Trustees that determined “campus safety and emergency preparedness is a priority.”

At each campus (except for East Los Angeles College), the district will have an hour-long active shooter training session for faculty and students conducted by personnel from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. The training will discuss what options in such an event and how to recognize workplace and classroom violence. The first session will take place at Valley College on Thursday, Feb. 27. It will be in Administration and Career Advancement 2504 at 5:30 p.m. To sign up, register at the Valley Active Shooter Training Workshop on Eventbrite.

In addition, the district will be conducting monthly mandatory lockdown drills at each campus. Each drill will be building specific as everyone inside will be told to go into lockdown mode. Sheriff personnel will then inspect the building to check each lockdown was performed correctly before giving the “all clear.” According to the document, these drills will last from 90 seconds to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the building. The first of these drills to occur at Valley will be on March 11.

There will also be 15-minute training specifically for classroom situations for students at the request of their professors. Each training will be presented by the LASD and will inform students what the district and colleges are doing to prepare and respond to an active shooter. To request a session, faculty need to contact Ramirez at ramirew@laccd.edu.

Lastly, there will be 90-minute discussion-based exercise at each campus in response to an active shooter. It will be conducted by the LASD, along with the Office of Safety and Emergency Services and each campus’s president. The dates have not yet been determined.