Doral Police conducts trainings to keep schools safer

DORAL, FL – As a new school year fast approach, authorities are conducting trainings to keep schools safer in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. 

One of them was led by the Doral Police that on Thursday hosted a training exercise at Downtown Doral Upper School, located at 7905 NW 53rd Street. 

The purpose of this exercise and any of such nature is to better prepare for emergencies on campus, specifically the police is seeking to train for mass casualty incidents, which is why all the reenactments are done in a realistic way.

“With just about one week away from the start of the school year, it’s imperative that our police officers are equipped and trained on how to respond during a critical incident,” said Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez as reported by 7News.

Lopez also highlighted to the media the importance of having parents guarding their children’s social media use taking into account hoax threats are a problem that has been hunting schools in recent years. 

In the same line, Broward also conducted trainings to keep schools safer at Cypress Bay High School, located at 18600 Vista Park Blvd.

Sheriff Gregory Tony confirmed roughly 70 School Resource Officers will be actively participating in these drills, aiming to explore the school system weaknesses and how to correct them. 

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Schools will be on top of school safety this year with a focus on improving mental health problems since it has been proved that behind every school shooting there’s a mental health issue that was never properly addressed. 

In the upcoming 2023-2024 school year, the school board will be working hard to bring more resources and information to the community on this matter, while teachers and staff will be trained in issues like school bullying. 

“Although we already have some protocols in place, it is necessary that both teachers and administrative staff, cafeteria employees, or bus drivers are on the same page regarding what bullying really is and are also trained in identifying the patterns that can lead to this problem in order to intervene on a timely manner,” said School Board member for District 5, Danny Espino in an interview with Doral Family Journal.