‘CRASE’ training for student safety in D’Iberville

The first day of school in D’Iberville is tomorrow and teachers and staff are in a ‘CRASE’ to keep their students safe. ‘CRASE’ stands for ‘civilian response to active shooter events.’

It’s every parent, teacher, and student’s worst nightmare: a gunman in the school. While police and school leaders hope for the best, they know to prepare for the worst considering the increase in school shootings over recent years. D’Iberville Middle School Principal Matthew Elias said, “This day and age we have to be prepared for the unthinkable and with the forward thinking of the district, along with the two agencies, we’re going to get a little further in-depth training on how to make sure that our school is secure.”

One safeguard is this CRASE training. D’Iberville starts school on Tuesday, but on Monday, teachers got a front row seat on what to do in case an active shooter invades their school: avoid, deny, and defend is a good place to start. Also, hide and lock up behind a door if possible, according to D’Iberville school resource officers and Mississippi Homeland Security who teamed up for this CRASE training. Shannon Nobles with D’Iberville PD said, “Now the teachers, they have a policy and procedure in place just in case something does happen, but this is to think outside the box in case that plan fails, they’re able to think about other options like avoiding the active shooter event or denying access to the active shooter. God forbid, you may have to defend yourself.”

Nobles says it takes about three minutes for law enforcement to respond to an emergency which is why he says the best way to avoid fatality is to get civilian help. “The most valuable treasure in our community is the children. We want to make sure that, first of all, law enforcement is trained and ready and prepared and the second part of that is that the civilians and the citizens that could be a part of an active shooter event, that they’re also trained and know what to do.”

Second grade teacher Brooke Rushing said, “It’s scary, but I think teachers need to understand that we’re there to teach our students, but we’re also there to save our students, too. They always come first no matter what the situation is.”