LIBERTY, Mo. — A deadly mass shooting inside a Texas school has local law enforcement taking precautions.
The Clay County Sheriff's Office announced earlier this week that deputies would be present outside of school buildings in North Kansas City Schools until the end of the school year on Friday.
Lt. Scott Archer supervises 17 school resource deputies for the Clay County Sheriff's Office and said children are currently talking about the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed.
“The kids ask the general questions, what did you think? That type of stuff," Archer said. "And we give our normal responses, we’re all humans so we all have the human responses of the tragedy that occurred and how you feel, and the kids really respond to that really well."
Archer said during his more than 20 years in law enforcement, the response to mass shootings has changed.
"If you go all the way back to Columbine when there was a lot of waiting, if you remember back in those days they waited for SWAT, they stood a perimeter. Now, we’re training just to eliminate the threat immediately,” Archer said.
In addition to a rapid response, Lt. Archer said there's a review of past tragedies to explore what went right and wrong. He added that training involves multiple agencies in Kansas City, Gladstone and others.
"We’ve done cross-training with Kansas City’s SWAT team on entries because they will show up," Archer said. "So, if we have an active shooter or any kind of threat within a school building itself, talking specifically about schools, they will show up and they will assist."
