Relax — it’s just a drill. Prairie View Elementary School will be the site of important safety training for local first responders starting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sep. 6. Eden Prairie High School (EPHS) will also serve as a staging area for the training.
Each year, the Eden Prairie police and fire departments conduct emergency response training in the community to develop their response skills across agencies. From 6 to 10 p.m. on Sept. 6, 13, and 18, the training will take place at Prairie View.
In an email sent to district families last week, Eden Prairie Schools said that the goal of this training is to simulate a real emergency so that first responders can prepare for situations that may arise in the future. The training will involve police cars and ambulances, and those nearby may hear loud popping noises.
Before the training begins, police cars and other emergency vehicles will be staged in the EPHS parking lot.
Signs in English, Spanish and Somali marked “Training in Progress” will be posted outside of EPHS and Prairie View to reassure people that no emergency is occurring.
The police will also knock on doors around Prairie View to give a heads-up to neighbors, and there will be information on the district’s web pages and social media pages. The district suggested that people remind friends and neighbors that emergency vehicles are present for training, not a real emergency.
In future years, the training will be conducted at all local schools to help agencies become more familiar with the district’s buildings. Familiarity with the school buildings enhances first responders’ ability to quickly address situations that arise in Eden Prairie Schools, such as students and staff needing medical assistance.
The district suggested that if families choose to talk to their students about the safety training exercise, “You may wish to emphasize that our schools are very safe environments with many security features in place, some that are obvious and others that are harder to see.
“You could also share that our school and our friends at the police and fire departments work hard to keep all Eden Prairie Schools students and staff safe so they can focus on learning every day.”
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