Axtell ISD teachers and staff take active approach in protecting against active shooter events

AXTELL, Texas (KWTX) - Teachers and school staff of Axtell ISD came up to the schools Thursday before the first day of school to put a focus on safety.

Staff spent four hours learning the best ways to protect the young lives that sit in their classrooms if an active shooting incident occurs.

They learned three steps to take: avoid, deny and defend.

Teachers yelled out commands, barricaded doors, even fought back as someone pretended to be a shooter trying to gain access.

“Our number one goal is to protect our students and intercept any threat within seconds of that threat appearing,” Superintendent J.R. Proctor said.

Teachers and staff did one drill after another in different parts of the school.

“They are actually fortifying doors and preparing if they do breach the door to defend it,” Johnny Price of Big Iron School Safety Training said.

The active shooter training is on top of the guardian training that takes place at Axtell ISD for the staff that is armed on campus.

“We are prepared every single day for the appearance of a threat,” Proctor said. “I don’t think you can have too much training.”

“You saw how they evolved in each one and how they got better,” Price said. “That’s from being hands-on.”

After hours of talking about how to react in different scenarios and what they can improve upon, teachers say what surprised them most was their physical response to even just a simulation.

“Even though we were doing some scenarios simulations today, the physical responses were real,” Jody Flowers, Axtell ISD Director of Academics, said. “You did feel the adrenaline kick in and everything Johnny taught us, your body still went through.”

Flowers says because of the training, they know how their body will react and can overcome that with the correct actions to save lives.

Price says Axtell is just one of the schools he is working with. He says after seeing tragedies like the one of Uvalde, now he is booked nearly every single day for the next three weeks with school trainings.

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