LHS Drama Students Help the EMS Practice an Active Shooter Simulation

La Grange High School drama students helped out Fayette County EMS during a training exercise on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Fayette County EMS hosted a training class called Tactical Casualty Emergency Care for its staff along with medics from other agencies. Part of the class involved an active shooter scenario at an outdoor mall.

The drama students played the roles of gunshot victims, complete with theatrical blood and makeup to simulate wounds. The rain that day added to the exercise’s realism. The exercise took place at the Fayette County EMS headquarters in La Grange.

The drama students moaned and screamed in pain as medics attended to the “victims.” EMS personnel categorized the patients by injury severity.

“At an incident like this, we give everyone a mass casualty tag,” said EMS Director Josh Vandever. “If you’re walking, you get a green tag. The next level is yellow, then red.”

Some of the “victims” were deceased. The medics give them a black tag and pass them by to attend to those still alive.

“If the shooting is still going on, basically all you do is reposition them, put a tourniquet on them if that’s what they need, and move on,” Vandever said.

Later, the medics move the victims to a casualty collection point. There, they triage the patients and begin treating the most severely injured while preparing them for transport.

“With the way the times are going, it’s more and more of a reality for us to deal with these potential situations, even in a small county,” said Fayette County EMS Capt. Connor Zeller.

Zeller said the drama students greatly added to the exercise’s authenticity.

“They’ve been great,” Zeller said. “They’re very good at acting and putting on that persona. They really got our adrenaline pumping.”

“That’s our goal – to simulate the worst-case scenario,” Zeller added. “If or when this might happen, at least we have a little more preparation.”