RUN, HIDE, FIGHT

Run, hide, and fight.
That is a phase that K-M Superintendent Mark Matuska never thought he would have to use when he began his career in education.
That phase echoed the halls of K-M High School last week as more than 100 first responders took place in an active shooter drill at the school.
School safety improvements
In the last few years Matuska explained that like many schools around the state and country, K-M has expanded on its school security.
One of the biggest changes was the fact that they have worked with the county emergency management team to create the best possible strategies for school safety and crisis plans.
Over the years some of the other changes that they have made include checking all IDs when visitors come to the school, which allows the school to identify who is at the school.
Through a system called Raptor, they are also able to do a quick check on all visitors during the day to make sure they are not dangerous to anyone in the building, which is an additional level of security to protect students and staff.
One of the biggest things that Matuska pointed to is having only one entrance to come into the school has made the schools much safer in the last few years.
Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose had high praise for the school district’s safety procedures.
“All the schools in the country have worked with Emergency Management and Law Enforcement to build a comprehensive safety plan something that is very important,” Rose stated.
Another thing that Rose pointed to which makes the schools safe is the very valuable School Resource Officers.
Currently K-M has its own school officer and Triton and Hayfield have one that splits time at each school, which they may eventually expand on to have a full-time officer at both schools.
Aside from having an extra layer of security at the schools, Rose explained with a SRO they are able to build connections with the kids at a young age which helps build relationships with law enforcement as they become adults.
“We are very fortunate to have resource officers in our schools in our small community,” Rose said.
More training
In the past few years, Rose has been dedicated to have as much training as possible for his deputies and staff.
One of the biggest reasons for the emphasis on training is because of the fact the world and the field of law enforcement are always changing.
“Law Enforcement has changed so much which is a reason why trainings like this one is so important,” Rose stated.
Every year the county tries to practice some type of active shooter drill along with other disaster drills throughout the year.
Some of the active shooter drills included having a drill at Triton School along with a drill at the courthouse.
Rose also pointed to his Emergency Management Team’s experience as a valuable asset to the county.
“We are blessed to have great trainers here in Dodge County,” said Rose.
With the training at the school Matuska said that it also gives law enforcement and other first responders an opportunity to become more familiar with the school and their safety plan something that would be a huge advantage if an emergency situation ever arose.
Rose and Matuska, both veterans in their professions, pointed out that since Columbine schools have had to change the way they have their security set up and make changes to the way they operate in a intruder situation.
Preparing for the worst
For about a decade Matt Maas has been the Emergency Management director for Dodge County.
During that time he has been involved with a number of different manmade and natural disasters.
In order to prepare for a drill like the one at the school it takes a lot of work.
The whole process, Maas said, takes about two or three months because first they needed to understand the school safety procedures and also coordinate with the different regional agencies.
Another aspect to preparing for a training like the one at the school is communicating with the public to make sure they are aware that it is only a drill so they are not scared of what is going on with the many police and emergency vehicles.
Despite the long process, Maas said that the trainings are super important, especially because of the fact that they are able to train together as a region.
“The trainings are super very important because anytime we have a emergency situation everyone needs to come together.”
He also made the point that have trainings on different situations are super important due to the fact that everyone involved will be prepared and won’t have to learn on the fly about what to do in a situation.
“We don’t want the day that we are faced with a emergency situation to be the day we learn what to do,” said Maas. “When were faced with challenges we need to know what to do right away and be able to tackle it,” he added.
Most importantly Maas explained that the training like the one on Thursday is so critical because you never know when an incident may take place.
Overall Matuska explained that the training and security changes made to the schools over the years are all about one thing-- the kids.
“It’s about protecting one of our most precious assets we have, our kids and their safety.”