Active shooter exercise held on campus at Valley Ridge Academy

During last week’s school holiday break, Historic City News learned that firefighters and paramedics from St Johns County Fire Rescue teamed with St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deputies in a simulated live shooter response scenario at Valley Ridge Academy in Nocatee.

In the simulation on December 29th, deputies rushed into the school to quickly locate, confine, and subdue a shooter, while medics followed in to secure areas for triage and to remove victims for treatment.

The training builds on lessons learned by police and firefighters in mass shooting incidents over the last decade. The new tactics call on police to respond more aggressively, and for medics to access victims as soon as a portion of the scene has been secured.

One of the methods employed in the training exercise was a slick, yellow plastic sled than can rapidly drag victims away from danger and to a designated treatment area.

Participants were escorted by deputies into a secure area of the school to identify and remove victims, even though the shooter remained pinned down in another part of the building.