Deputy Trejo and Deputy Williby from the Williamson County Sheriff Department came to the lecture hall during both lunches on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23 and 24, to give a presentation about Citizen Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE). The presentation included information about how attackers can be someone with no history of violence and how attacks don’t just happen in schools, but also in commerce areas like grocery stores or malls.

“This [presentation] is really important because it doesn’t just apply to school,” Deputy Trejo said. “It applies to everywhere students go, like grocery stores or malls.”

The deputies then explained the three stages of disaster response. The first stage is denial, which occurs when someone hears a gunshot but tries to convince themselves it wasn’t real. The second stage is deliberation, which happens after the person has realized the gunshot was real and start to come up with a plan of action. The final stage is when the person acts on their plan, and it is called a decisive moment.

“I wanted to learn about how to stay safe in my school and what I could do to protect myself,” Andrew Crawford ‘20. “In the instance of a school shooter I’d want to know what to do.”

The presentation ended with Deputy Trejo explaining what the plan of action would be in an incident with an active shooter at school. He told students to look for a window in the room to use it in order to get out. He also expressed the importance of staying level headed and calm in avoiding the danger.

“The reason for the presentation is to give them techniques when there are active threats,” Deputy Trejo said. “We want to inform students as best as possible so they know what to do in these situations.”