Oak Creek arms teachers, staff with tools in case of shooting
OAK CREEK (WITI) -- Oak Creek is arming its teachers and staff members with special kits and training to help them should the unthinkable happen: a school shooting.
"Nobody wants to think that they're sending their kid into a combat zone," said Joe Pulvermacher, the Battalion Chief of Training with the Oak Creek Fire Department.
But these days, school shooting incidents have become all too commonplace -- leading Oak Creek officials to take action.
"Even though we don't want to think about it and we don't necessarily want to address the probabilities or the possibilities of this incident, we also have to be prepared and that's what these kits do," Pulvermacher said.
Emergency response "treat and go" kits will soon be in every classroom in Oak Creek -- thanks to private donations and avid fundraising by community groups.
"In the kit we have tourniquets, quick clot gauze. We have an Israeli compression bandage and a halo chest seal," said Mike Bolender, the Operations Captain for the Oak Creek Police Department.
Additionally, the Oak Creek Fire and Police Departments partnered with the Oak Creek-Franklin School District to train all faculty on how to respond in the case of an active shooter.
"We went to the Fire Department and said 'we train our police officers to treat bullet wounds -- why can't we give this equipment and training to staff and teachers and allow them to be a force multiplier for us?' They're going to be in those classrooms locked down with kids and if any of them have injuries that way they can give that initial first aid treatment," Bolender said.
Teachers have been and will continue to be trained on using the kits -- as well as how to protect their students and themselves in the event of a shooting.
FOX6 News is told Oak Creek's personal experience with an active shooter, at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin helped to speed up the process to get these kits and training implemented.
Officials in Oak Creek are hoping other communities will soon follow their lead.
"They will save lives by doing stuff on the front end instead of responding -- to be more proactive," Bolender said.
The kits cost about $110 a piece. No taxpayer money has been used to purchase them.
Officials are hoping to have them in about half of the city's classrooms by the end of this school year.