By Staff Reports

(Victorville)– If you see a significant police presence at Victor Valley College next Monday, don’t worry – it’s part of joint “active shooter” exercise training. Chief Leonard Knight said the activity will start Monday morning, November 30, and will last for several hours. The public is being notified ahead of time to avoid any confusion.

There will be a large public safety presence during this event as the Victor Valley College Police Department (VVCPD), San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBCSD), Victorville Police Station, San Bernardino County Fire Department (SBCFD), Victorville Fire Station, and American Medical Response (AMR) have planned for and are conducting this exercise to ensure coordinated, timely and effective response to the college community, as well as enhance safety at Victor Valley College. Additionally, the campus will be “locked” down (secure and hold), there will be movement of emergency vehicles and a portion of the campus will be unavailable until the exercise is complete.

VVC Superintendent/President Roger Wagner believes these exercises and training sessions are imperative as these type of occurrences are all too common. “What I want everyone to know is that we have, on an on-going basis been assessing and implementing an improved campus security and response plan for many months. Many improvements have been made and there are still more to come.”

The exercise is a college wide drill and training for our faculty, staff and students in preparation of an active shooter occurrence within our campus community as well as a real life simulation. “Conducting and planning for this exercise will allow us to assess our emergency preparedness and review the coordination and rapid response of both police agencies.” stated Chief Knight.

The campus community will be alerted prior to the start of the exercise via an “emergency notification message” sent through the Alertus Emergency Notification System and through the Text Alert Message System. Additional pre exercise messages will provided through social media, email, classroom announcements and flyers posted around the campus.

This exercise will surely prove to be beneficial to all involved participants and we would like to thank everyone in advance for their cooperation and participation.