Holmes schools work to plan for worst possible scenarios

An active shooter in a small rural school district won’t ever happen here in Holmes County.

Unfortunately, that is what many of the small rural communities who have experienced great loss through active shooter incidents throughout the U.S. have thought.

While that scenario may well never play itself out here in Holmes County, the idea of being prepared should it ever happen is something that the Holmes County Emergency Management Agency has begun to place a great amount of focus on.

In December of 2024 the EMA met with leaders in the West Holmes School District and recently it met with leaders in the East Holmes School District to start formulating a plan on best practices should an active shooter scenario ever take place.

Jason Troyer, Holmes EMA director, said preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is something that the EMA was designed to do, and he noted that in working with the schools, local fire and EMS, area law enforcement and Pomerene Hospital, he has realized one very important thing.

“What I loved about both of these meetings is that everyone was wanting to do what is best for the community,” Troyer said. “We put the pride away, and looked at what we were good at and what we needed to focus on to improve ourselves. That was reassuring for me because that is where we make improvements and make ourselves better as a community.”

Troyer said the goal of creating these opportunities was to bring all of the involved entities that would impact an active shooter scenario together so everyone can be on the same page.

“We had a really productive meeting,” said East Holmes superintendent Erik Beun. “This was a great opportunity to sit at the table together and talk about our responsibilities. It’s very important for us to discuss this because safety is the most important thing we focus on when educating our children, and this gives us an opportunity to think things through and the feedback was invaluable.”

Troyer said identifying roles and responsibilities is imperative, and in the process of doing so during the discussions, it would open the door to explore areas where the county can improve its readiness to respond properly.

He said one area they found lacking was family reunification plans which would reunite students with their parents and caregivers amid the chaos.

He said that is one area the EMA has targeted and he and assistant EMA director Jordan Tschiegg are now developing a guideline to better the response to that scenario.

“The goal here isn’t to create shame about how we aren’t prepared or to spread fear, but to find ways to improve ourselves to improve things like family reunification that are only going to make this process better,” Troyer said.

Troyer said they will create a task force designed specifically for the family reunification roles.

Troyer went on to note that every school district has its own unique sets of circumstances regarding an active shooter, but every district shares many themes and objectives that are similar.

“Every school has its own nuances as a district, and every district has its nuances within each of its school buildings,” Troyer said. “The actions in an elementary school won’t be the same as those in a high school because of the age of the students so we will have to create a different approach to each possible scenario.”

However, he said getting everyone and each entity that would be involved on the same page is imperative to a more successful outcome.

Troyer said with so many moving pieces involved and so many unheralded key contributors involved, this process is an important step in becoming prepared for the worst as a county and hope that it is never set in motion.