Last month Livingston County School Resource Officers, school officials, and other emergency response professionals met at the Livingston County Center for Emergency Operations and Training to receive advanced training on the topic of Inter-Agency Response and Reaction to a School-Based Incident.

The training was sponsored by Livingston County Sheriff John York, York Central School, and the Center for Emergency Operations and Training.  Sheriff York felt it was extremely important for the area school resource officers to constantly update their training when it comes to protecting our children in schools.   

Conducting this training were David DeLoria, Interim Superintendent at York Central and a trainer on threat assessment for the United States Secret Service; Livingston County Sheriff's Deputy Gene Chichester, School Resource Officer at York Central; Major Chris Smith of the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department; and Kevin Niedermaier of the County’s Emergency Operations Center.

The participants viewed a training video used in last year’s Safe Schools Seminar that was, in part, sponsored the U.S. Secret Service.  The video depicted a series of school emergency scenarios in a real life manner.  The trainers engaged the audience in a discussion about the video and asked them to reflect on what could have been done differently or what seemed to be an appropriate response.   

Sheriff John York stated that "the work will never be done in assuring that our children are safe in school.  this training will be ongoing and reviewed continuously.  We cannot work hard enough on the topic of school safety."

Participants noted thatthere are two major facets that stand out demonstrating a school resource officer’s value. First, a school resource officer has his or her eyes and ears tuned in to the heartbeat of the school.  They will be able to prevent a serious incident by picking up on student information before an event occurs.  And, on-site school resource officers can immediately respond to resolve a violent incident without waiting for first responders to arrive.

Sheriff York and his colleagues plan to continue safety training for children in Livingston County Schools.