Habersham County Sheriff’s Office hosted training for school bus drivers and school resource officers (SROs) on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare them for various emergency scenarios.
“We did a little presentation on procedures, and then we went through some what-if scenarios,” said Lt. Matt Wurtz, who is in charge of training for the sheriff’s office. “It’s a two-way street, though. We were gathering all the information we could from their expertise. They know their buses better than we do.”
Scenarios included if something happens with a fight on a bus, or if a student has a weapon and the driver is informed, and what happens if they have to use the emergency window and so forth.
Wurtz and School Transportation Director Stephanie Walker organized the training sessions jointly.
“Cross training with our community’s emergency agencies is an ongoing goal and will be a benefit to our department and those emergency personnel who may come to our aid in the future,” Walker said. “We have also trained, in a previous year, with the Cornelia Fire Department on school bus safety, fire extinguishers, emergency evacuations and extrication.”
Walker said the training helps her staff and emergency personnel understand the roles they play in different situations.
“All emergency agencies in Habersham County have always been amazing to our school system and our needs; however, anytime we can strengthen the partnership, it should be done,” Walker said. “It is a privilege to work alongside these great men and women and we are forever grateful for the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, especially Sheriff Joey Terrell and Col. Murray Kogod, for their ongoing efforts in keeping our students safe.”
It is the goal of the sheriff’s office to have an SRO in every school since funding was approved for that endeavor last year. They are still looking to fill out their complement of officers.
“We have 10 of the 14 SRO’s selected. However, it takes a special type of law enforcement officer to be able to transition into the school resource officer position and be a good fit for our school system,” Kogod said. “For this reason, it takes longer to find a qualified candidate to fill this role.”