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ZEBULON – The Pike County School System partnered the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, Pike County Fire Department, Pike County EMA (Emergency Management Agency), AmeriPro EMS (Emergency Medical Services) and GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management Agency)/ Homeland Security to conduct an active shooter training event at Pike County High School on July 31, 2025. Students, teachers, and staff were a part of this exercise.

The last active shooter exercise took place in 2023 at the Middle School. Changes have taken place since that event to ensure that in the case of a real life event, the response would be better today than it was two years ago.

Debriefings were conducted after the event to emphasize what went well and what protocols needed updates to better ensure the safety of students, teachers, and staff in the case of a real life emergency event. There was an emphasis on reunification efforts in a crisis during this event. Pike County Times did not take photos of this staging area but heard encouraging words about how well things went there.

More photos are on the Pike County Times Facebook page.

Preparation for The Event

Clint Westbrook was the GEMA/Homeland Security School Resource Representative who got to play the bad guy in this active shooter scenario. Deputies from the Pike County Sheriff’s Office went inside to clear the school of danger, sent victims to safety outside, made it safe for first responders to enter cleared areas to assist the injured, and handled the situation with the person playing the bad guy. Clint Westbrook from GEMA/Homeland Security played the bad guy in this scenario.

Director of Security Ross Iddings advised Pike County Times that planning for this event began in February of 2025. The Pike County Sheriff’s Office was the lead planning agency for this exercise this time with Westbrook participating in the exercise but not heading it up. Two years ago, GEMA/Homeland Security was the lead planning agency for this exercise.

Many from the school community helped out in this training event. Students, teachers, and staff from the school system were inside the school that was part of this active shooter training event.

There was an emphasis on reunification of students and parents during this exercise. “We learned a lot but had a lot in place,” Iddings said. “We feel good about this.”

Superintendent Shane Williamson said that he was proud of the faculty and staff for taking part in the seriousness of this drill.

Williamson also thanked Sheriff Thomas and his staff for the professionalism and planning of this drill along with the help from GEMA/Homeland Security and our EMS personnel.

“We hope that we never have to do this in real time,” he said. “This was a drill that we can learn from.” Williamson advised that those involved debriefed after the exercise in order to learn what worked well and what needed improvement.

He also said that there would be more exercises like this in the future. “We are going to continue to drill and prepare for something that we hope never happens.”

The Day of the Event

Emergency vehicles were staged on the Pike County School campus prior to the event kickoff at 9 a.m. Emergency services had an ambulance, a fire truck with multiple personnel including Fire Chief Bobby Wilkerson, and Pike EMA Director Jimmy Totten had two trucks on the scene including a new truck that was the command vehicle on the scene.

This command vehicle allowed there to be a joint command on the site to allow the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, Fire Department, and EMS to coordinate resources so everyone could come together during this drill. The school has an Emergency Operations Center to work from as well.

This drill was an opportunity to test out the new vehicle and see what else is needed for the future. Federal grants have provided the vehicle and accompanying technology over a period of many years. “We are learning the deficiencies and improving on what we can work on for next time,” Totten said.

“I think overall that this (the active shooter exercise) went very well,” Totten said. “This was an improvement over the last exercise that we did.”

The need for this type of exercise started after Columbine in 1999 and has continued even here in Georgia with the horrible incident in Barrow County in 2024.

An emphasis was made on clearing areas for the first responders to attend to the wounded and eliminating the threat to students, faculty, and anyone present at the school at the time of an attack. This exercise focused on the reunification process that tracked students and even included a practice hostage situation in the school with Westbrook as the bad guy.

Sheriff Jimmy Thomas elaborated on this by saying that victims were identified and sent to safety by taking them to a safe location as deputies cleared each area of a threat to their safety.

Students, staff, and faculty played their part in this active shooter training scenario by making it as real as possible. Photos show students and teachers coming out of the building with their hands raised to show law enforcement that they were not part of the threat as they were moved to a safe location outside of the school.

Students also played their part with injuries that were assigned to them prior to the beginning of the exercise. The injured were sent to fire fighters and EMS for evaluation while the exercise was ongoing.

Closing

Sheriff Thomas said that this was all about the safety of the schools and the community. “Public safety and the school system felt the need for training to be prepared for an incident that we hope won’t occur,” he said.

Thomas said that the School Superintendent, Sheriff’s Office, Fire Department, and EMA worked very well together for the safety of the children with this plan that can be used in any type of disaster. “A lot of good came out of this,” he said.

Thomas said that the purpose of this drill was to improve working relationships and identify things that we can do better to protect our teachers and kids. “We need to be prepared,” he said.

The time taken after the exercise to debrief the participants was a way to identify any issues that were needed for training or determine what was needed to be purchased for the future. He said that there will be more of these training events to come.

“We identified some areas that will improve and assist us in the future,” Thomas said. “It helped all parties involved.”

“We are prepared for something that we hope never happens.”

Thank you to First Bank of Pike for sponsoring Pike County Times’ Breaking News Alerts! First Bank of Pike has been serving customers in Pike County and the surrounding area since 1901 and offers Personal and Business banking with a personal touch. Services include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and IRA’s. Mobile Banking and Bill Payment services are also available! Click here for more. Please let First Bank of Pike know that you appreciate their sponsorship of Breaking News Alerts on Pike County's only FREE online newspaper!

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ZEBULON - Pike County Schools will conduct a routine active shooter training exercise on Thursday, July 31st.

This drill is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that law enforcement, emergency medical services, and school personnel are fully prepared in the event of an on-campus emergency.

Please do not be alarmed by the increased presence of police, EMTs, and emergency vehicles in the area during this time. This is a planned safety exercise and no real threat exists.

We appreciate your understanding as we work together to keep our schools and community safe.

Click here to read about past active shooter training: http://pikecountytimes.com/secondary/activeshooter10.25.23.html.

Thank you to First Bank of Pike for sponsoring Pike County Times’ Breaking News Alerts! First Bank of Pike has been serving customers in Pike County and the surrounding area since 1901 and offers Personal and Business banking with a personal touch. Services include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and IRA’s. Mobile Banking and Bill Payment services are also available! Click here for more. Please let First Bank of Pike know that you appreciate their sponsorship of Breaking News Alerts on Pike County's only FREE online newspaper!

INFORMATION ABOUT RECEIVING BREAKING NEWS ALERTS CAN BE FOUND, HERE.

Thanks for reading and supporting Pike County Times.com!