EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – Around 100 people, from law enforcement and EMS personnel to school district staff, spent the day (4/15/24) at Eau Claire North High School. ECPD staff walked through clearing hallways and classrooms while also going through the evacuation process, training for an active threat in a school.

Eau Claire Police Deputy, Derek Thomas, says preparing for these kinds of tragedies allows law enforcement to respond to threats more effectively, even if they aren’t directly related to a specific school or building, “
The best thing about something like this is that these types of incidents are transferable, so it’s not just specific to this building, it’s specific to any building.”

Thomas says they’ve spent close to a year preparing for this training and will complete debriefs when the training is over to see where there is room for improvement.