School shooter drill shows need for improved communication

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WAFF) - A recent school shooter drill in Muscle Shoals showed that emergency crews need to do a better job communicating with one another.

On Nov. 3 a school shooter drill was held at Northwest-Shoals Community College. The drill featured student volunteers who role-played as victims and the drill went as far as simulating the surge of patients taken to Helen Keller Hospital and Shoals Hospital.

People involved in the training exercise told our newspaper partners, The Times Daily, that the drill ran smoothly but could be improved with better communication between responding agencies.

The Times Daily reports that agencies were using different radio frequencies which made it hard to communicate between the groups.

Mark Bailey, the Chief Safety Officer for the school system is working to put together an action report which will outline the areas that need improvement and the areas that went as planned.

Although some reports show that communication was an issue, Bailey said that the responding agencies worked as a team better than most in the state.