In partnership with local law enforcement agencies, around 200 Piedmont University students gained real-world, hands-on experience during a disaster drill that served as a simulation of an active shooter scenario on Wednesday, March 19.
The exercise, held by Piedmont for about 25 years, is intended to provide students and first responders firsthand experience and training in the event of an actual disaster involving numerous victims.
At Loudermilk Field, the drill began just after 9:30 a.m. with a suspect fleeing from law enforcement officers before he was eventually captured.
Piedmont University nursing students then responded in the tumultuous aftermath: People shouting, frantic and wailing while students scrambled up and down bleachers to triage victims smeared with red dye and who appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds and other injuries.
By 10 a.m., some students dressed wounds at triage stations as others maneuvered and loaded limp bodies onto stretchers and then carried them off for eventual transport.
Nobody was injured during the drill, as the numbers provided below are solely for the purpose of the simulation.
During the drill, 12 were said to be transported with critical injuries of the 33 total injured, while four were considered fatalities.
Following the exercise, nursing students gathered by an AirLife Georgia helicopter, where flight nurse and paramedic Jennifer Davis explained aspects of her profession and gave advice on saving lives.
More than textbook learning
“You gain a lot from this drill,” senior nursing student Marlene Seebar told Now Habersham after the exercise. “You see it on TV, and what you see on TV is not even remotely close to real life. If you’ve never been in that situation, you can walk into that and have a panic attack. Especially for the seniors, when we graduate, if we’re ever thrown into that situation, we’ll have a better handle on it…I think it really does give us a good idea of what really is involved during a disaster.”
Junior nursing student Chloe Chandler said Wednesday’s drill gave her experience that she simply couldn’t find in a textbook.
“You’re in class, and you’re reading your textbooks and going through lectures, and you have a certain understanding of it, but really, the fact that we came out here today and got to experience it and see how everything functions, it’s really something you can’t read about in a textbook,” Chandler said. “I think this has been a good experience – to really see trauma like this firsthand. It was very well-rounded.”
Marla Rosado, a junior student of nursing at Piedmont, expressed a similar sentiment.
“We read a textbook and we’re like, ‘OK, this is what we do for this patient’ – all these steps and interventions we go through but you need to put it into practice,” Rosado said.
Lindi Hoersten, a junior nursing student, also described the drill as beneficial in gaining experience she hopes she’ll never have to use in a real scenario.
“I hope never to experience a trauma like this, but I do think it’s a great experience to see how everybody worked together,” she said. “I’m glad we experienced it, even though I hope we never do.”
LEO training and partnership building
At 11 a.m., law enforcement officials fielded questions from reporters outside Piedmont University’s student commons building.
“I think any exercise like this is going to help us better prepare,” Habersham County Sheriff Robin Krockum said. “Anytime we can practice these exercises in a real-life situation, it’s going to help us. Just like with the nursing students – it gives them real-life (experience). You’re going to have adrenaline and different types of feelings you have and how to respond, and we all work well together, especially on the law enforcement side, so it’s important to us.”
Piedmont University Police Chief Jim Andrews called Wednesday’s drill an opportunity to strengthen partnerships within the community.
“Training is very important, but a lot of this is relationships and the relationships all of our agencies have with each other,” Andrews said. “I just want to say our relationships and our teamwork with each agencies is as good or better than it ever has been.”
Krockum encourages the public to alert the authorities if they see suspicious activity or behavior to prevent a potential active shooter scenario or other tragedies before they happen. Reports of suspicious individuals or tips of potential threats can be sent to the See Something Send Something app, which is available on Apple and Android devices.
