Greene County creates emergency response team following Texas school shooting
WAYNESBURG, Pa. (KDKA) — In response to the recent deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Greene County is creating an emergency response team in hopes of protecting its school districts.
David Russo, Greene County's district attorney, announced Thursday that the county is implementing a team that will specifically be trained to give an emergency response and tactical entry in the event of a school shooting.
"We're in a rural county. We're half-hour to 40 minutes out from Washington County SWAT," Russo said. "People were worried about sending their children to school and these are tragic events and we needed to address that a certain way."
Russo said law enforcement members will be on call to help de-escalate any school shooting threat. They will also monitor social media, and there will be a hotline for the public.
"They'll be trained in active shooter response, preparedness plans and the entry into the school, which I think is vital in preserving life," Russo said.
He said the team will be made up of at least 12 law enforcement officers from county detectives to major crimes units to local police.
"We are always talking about what if, you know?" said Marla Patton, a Greene County school teacher of 25 years. "I think that's the important part, making sure that we're aware of what we need to do to keep our babies safe."
She said her school has security protocols in place and security officers patrolling but told KDKA-TV that she's happy to hear the county is doing more to help protect its students.
"It's always in the back of our minds, how can we be safer?" Patton said.
"It does ease my mind that we have some back up there to be able to protect our children," said Cody Rice, a Greene County resident and parent. "I think there's a lot of benefit to that."
Russo said that he hopes to have the emergency response team ready to go by July. He said he's also working with each school district to initiate response plans in the event of an active shooter and coordinate and develop evacuation plans for each of the schools.
"I feel it's our responsibility to address the community and say, you know, we are law enforcement. We're going to take a proactive stance. How do we learn from the mistakes of the past and then use that to build a functioning team so our community knows that we are addressing that and they can feel safe with their children at school," Russo said.