Nash SROs train to stop a school shooting

Nash County school resource officers spent Wednesday afternoon receiving training they hope they will never need - handling an active shooter situation at a local school.

Posted 11:55 p.m. Mar 7, 2018 — Updated 1:55 a.m. Mar 8, 2018

Sarah Krueger

, WRAL reporter

ELM CITY, N.C. — Nash County school resource officers spent Wednesday afternoon receiving training they hope they will never need – handling an active shooter situation at a local school.

The drills come three weeks after a shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead. Since that shooting, 797 threats to school safety have been reported nationwide, according to the nonprofit Educator's School Safety Network.

The training included shooting practice and combat training at the Rocky Mount Police Department gun range, a walkthrough of clearing out a school and scenarios at Coopers Elementary School to test the SROs' reactions.

Deputy Sam Weeks, the resource officer for Northern Nash High School, said he loves mentoring students, and he's prepared to sacrifice himself to protect them.

"I’ll do everything I can to protect my children at school. I’ll go after the threat and do what I have to do to protect my kids," Weeks said.

He and his fellow SROs say they want to focus on school safety and security so students and teachers can focus on learning.

"It’s kind of like raising your own children, except you got 1,000 or so of them," he said. "You kind of put the teachers' and the students' mind at ease. I've had some of them ask me about the shooting in Florida and what would happen if it happened there. I said, 'Y'all just remember, I've got your back. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to protect you. If somebody's coming here, they're going to have to go through me to get to you.'"

Weeks is a father to two kids in Nash County schools, which is just one more reason to take the training, and his daily job, seriously.

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