Since Monday drivers have noticed a large number of police vehicles parked in front of Cleveland High School. Those vehicles were part of an officer training school this entire week put on by Chief Rex Evans and the Cleveland ISD Police Department and DPS. Officers from Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, Liberty County Precinct 6 Constable John Joslins Office, Montgomery County Precinct 4 Constables Office, Cleveland Police Department and DPS participated.
The school taught officers how top respond if a school did have an actual shooting. It took them through tactical training, search procedures, and how to handle a scene once they respond.
In this mornings full simulation which included students from the Cleveland High School ROTC who took time out of their spring break to assist the officers in their training.
As officers arrived they paired in groups, as one officer covered another each room and closet was searched. As one group rounded the corner the shooter was spotted and in this case shot. They then slowly moved through the school locating students both dead and injured along with students hiding from the situation as it unfolded.
The non injured students were escorted through the rear of the school with hands raised and were searched one more time by officers before taking them to the staging area in the stadium.
Once all the rooms were cleared Cleveland firefighters entered and started to triage the scene. Locating injured and dead as medics quickly entered still under the watchful eye of armed officers. In all there were twenty-five injured students and almost as many dead. Along with waiting Cleveland ambulances Atascocita Fire Department responded with their mass casualty ambulance. The unit can handle up to ten critical patients at one time and transport them to a hospital. The last time it was used was several months ago when almost one hundred vehicles were involved in a crash after fog set in on Interstate 10 near Beaumont.
Chief Rex Evans said he thought the school went very well as they had been in the planning stages since November. Sgt. Leitner with DPS New Caney was also in attendance. He and one of his troopers started a project several months ago that maps all the schools in the area. Once they are mapped they are put on laminated cards and bound. Each officer in the area is then issued a set of cards. In the event of an emergency an officer not familiar with a school can quickly look at the card and have the entire interior of the school at his fingertips. This includes classrooms, restrooms, closets, equipment rooms. He is also able to then communicate with other responding officers to a more precise location of an event.