How local schools prepare for active shooter scenarios

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Local police work with schools to make sure they are as ready as they can be if tragedy was to strike.

FOX 29's Dave Schratwieser reports.

As the deadly school shooting unfolded in Parkland, Florida, parents of school children in our area like Khalia Moore took a deep breath.

"It's just awful--it's just awful and it's very sad--you just never know," Moore told FOX 29.

"That's a mass murder," Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

A few hours after the school shooting, Upper DARY Superintendent Chitwood told FOX 29 active shooter drills are practiced at every public and private school in the township each year.

"It's a school lockdown, active shooter, there's alarms. Each school has an alarm. Each school is trained by school security with respect to what teachers should do," Superintendent Chitwood added.

Chitwood says his officers constantly train for in-school shooting situations like the Parkland incident. Sector cars are equipped with high powered weapons and blueprints to every school.

"Once a year we go into every school unannounced and we do a lockdown drill," he explained.

Moore's 9-year-old daughter Layla goes to a local private school where they do drills to prepare. She's glad students, teachers and police practice for active shooter scenarios.

Chitwood says as the number of school shootings go up each year training intensifies, but he says the goal is always the same for his officers.

"We just go right through and get the threat," Chitwood said. "These idiots go in and God forbid maim and kill these children.they deserved to be killed pure and simple."