DuPage County school districts to receive new training for active threat situations

WHEATON, Ill. (WLS) -- DuPage County has become the first county in the state to create a mutual aid program to help school communities coordinate their response to an active threat situation.

Incidents of violence at schools, such as those in Uvalde, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, have happened more frequently in the last few years around the country.

See also: Nashville school shooting: Timeline of events leading up to attack that killed 6

No such event has happened in DuPage County, but officials know it could happen, and they want to be prepared.

"Parents of students in this county should be reassured that all of us are working together to ensure the safety of their children," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said.

Every school district in DuPage County will soon receive training as part of an agreement to assist each other in an emergency. The "I Love U Guys" Foundation is providing some of that training, which they said will have everyone working together.

"What we're trying to do is a common terminology, common reunification, so all districts in the county are talking the same language," said Fred Cadena, West Chicago School District 33 director of facilities and safety.

"These are school administrators coming together with common training and common procedures," said John Heiderscheidt, DuPage School Safety Task Force member.

The mass shooting at Northern Illinois University in 2008 that killed five people and injured many more is the most serious school shooting locally in recent years.

See also: NIU marks 15th anniversary of Valentine's Day mass shooting under shadow of MSU

Safety experts have studied the response to that and other incidents. While everyone hopes never to have to use the training, they want to be prepared.

"It truly takes a village to get through the most unthinkable catastrophic moments and times," Elmhurst School District 205 Superintendent Dr. Keisha Campbell said.

DuPage County first formed a school safety task force in 1999, following the school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. Officials said this new agreement gives the task force a powerful tool to make schools safer than ever.