COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Ohio law requires that every school building in the state have a comprehensive safety plan and to conduct a certain number of safety drills.  Most districts also provide staff members with training for active shooter situations.

Chris Ward, director of Safety and Security at Columbus City Schools says active shooter training was conducted in every building last year. “We also have online training that we do with our district employees and so they’re always thinking about what if and when,” Ward said.

Columbus City Schools has a staff of 50 security officers in addition to 21 Columbus police officers who work as school resource officers. Already this school year, students and staff in Columbus have participated in a combined total of 1,600 safety drills and 600 lockdown drills.

Ward says his staff is constantly re-evaluating safety and security procedures especially after high profile incidents such as Wednesday’s shooting in Florida. “What we are seeing is our building principals are working with their SRO’s and they’re talking about these very scenarios,” Ward said. “So what if this happens, what would we do.”

Gary Sigrist conducts active shooter training for schools and business across the country. Sigrist, a retired police officer and former school safety director, owns Safeguard Risk Solutions based in Grove City.

Sigrist says every active shooter situations is different but says they are all low probability – high impact events. He says training and empowering staff is the key to minimizing that impact. “Really what’s important is we need to have our staff members trained so well that the students follow them and they’re going to be the ones that guide the students,” Sigrist said.

Sigrist says schools need to have multiple layers of security and training.

“Working with first responders, having plans, testing your plans, those are the things that are going to improve safety and security in your schools.”