‘This make us more confident’: Active attacker drills appreciated by students 

In the wake of school shootings in the United States, students and staff at St. Clair College in Windsor say “active attacker” drills are a good idea.

The college conducted the first of three emergency communication exercises Tuesday at its downtown campus. Similar scenarios will take place at other campuses next month.

“It's great to secure the life of students,” said event management student Sangeeba Sharme.

“They teach us how to hide, how to escape, how to save the people,” Sharme said. “It's a very good activity to teach, to learn more things, right? For our life, for others' life.”

Sharme explained similar drills have taken place where she works, suggesting it’s not scary but beneficial to be prepared.

“This make us more confident when we know how to handle the things. If people don't have much knowledge how to escape themselves and how to save others, then it's really scary,” she said. “But if you have a little knowledge about these things, I think then it's great.”

Classmate Teran Grewl agreed, but admitted it is worrisome to think about a tragic event unfolding.

“Whether we are in the mall, whether we are on the street, it helps everywhere.”

“Yeah, it is scary thinking about a risk like this. It's a scary thing, like active attackers are happening every day back in the U.S. I think. So it's really scary. Yeah. But we need to fight on it. We need to mitigate the risk,” Grewl told CTV News.

College staff said the communication exercise will happen again Apr. 6 at the South Campus and Apr. 13 at the Chatham Campus.

“It's to help staff and students understand what communication would be sent out if ever such an event happened,” explained Rebecca Demchuk, associate vice president of safety security and facilities management. 

“To understand what they should do if that happens, it gives them options and we think it's important that everybody understands there's options in a situation like that.”

Demchuk said recent events in Nashville and Michigan State University emphasize the need to be prepared. 

“When I heard it last night, it's very unfortunate that these events are happening in our world, but we need to be prepared. You know, it really hits home when it's close to home. And we thought it just it became essential that we ran such a drill.”