Thursday, September 15th, 2016

District trains for possible active shooter

St. Marys

By Jared Mauch
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Emergency personnel organize outside of Memorial High School and St. Marys Middle School on Wednesday during active shooter response training.

ST. MARYS - Local law enforcement and school officials on Wednesday converged on the high and middle school complex to practice handling an active-shooter scenario.
The training drill had been in the works since January and took most of the day to complete. School was not in session as it was a scheduled staff and teacher inservice day.
District director of transportation Dan Grothause organized the event, which included emergency personnel from the city and Auglaize and Mercer counties, to train how to respond to an active-shooter situation and how to evacuate the building, he said.
Participants learned medical practices to help save the life of an injured student or staff member while waiting for law enforcement to gain control of the situation and paramedics to reach the injured and evacuate the building, Grothause said.
"It was quite a sight, quite an undertaking to put together," he added.
The event built on previous training district employees and law enforcement personnel had undergone over the past few years, Grothause noted.
"I was very impressed with the staff, with the ad lib, with the way they came up with things," he said.
Participants were debriefed after the exercises to share their thoughts and ideas about handling the situation.
School principals thanked Grothause for having planned the event during Wednesday night's regular school board meeting.
"I know a lot of teachers who were very anxious about the training, but they feel a lot better after going through it," St. Marys East Primary School Principal Sue Sherman said.
District staff met for their own debriefing to share ideas, she said.
"We got a lot of great feedback already," middle school principal Mary Miller said. "We learned a lot."
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CELINA - Visitors from Minamiawaji, Japan, Celina's sister city, traveled thousands of miles across an ocean to visit the city for a week this summer.
Now they want Celina officials to return the gesture.
ST. MARYS - A capital campaign is officially underway to raise funds for a new athletic complex near the middle/high school building.
School board
CELINA - An Osgood man suffered burns during an accident in a feed bin east of Montezuma on Wednesday afternoon.
Trevor Wynk, 24, Osgood, was injured as his father, Steven Wynk, 47, tried to help him get out of the feed bin the two were painting, Mercer County Sheriff's Capt. Martin Emerine said.
WAPAKONETA - Voters on Election Day will be sorted by last name rather than precinct at the polls on Nov. 8.
The Auglaize County Board of Elections approved on Wednesday the new directive from the Ohio Secretary of State Office. The directive is statewide, board director Michelle Wilcox said.
Mercer County
CELINA - The work involved in applying for state-mandated accreditation led the Mercer County-Celina City Board of Health on Wednesday to hire a temporary employee to work on special human-resources projects.
NEW BREMEN - School district personnel want to focus on four goals for the 2016-2017 school year.
Superintendent Ann Towns-end shared the points of emphasis at Wednesday's school board meeting.
CHICKASAW - Plans to construct a maintenance building at the proposed wastewater treatment plant have been approved, and work can begin soon on the estimated $198,000 project.
HUBER HEIGHTS - Last night of the tour, last night of the Rose Music Center's second concert season, erstwhile chart-toppers Blues Traveler and The Wallflowers, with support from G. Love and Special Sauce and Howie Day, delivered solid sets to a decent-sized Friday night crowd.
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Ethan and Eli Wolf competed in several big games during their time in MAC country.
No games in the history of football can compare to the one in which they played last Saturday.
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Celina lost to Defiance 178-231 in Western Buckeye League boys' golf action on Wednesday.
Defiance's Trevor Rose was match medalist with a 43. Sammy Assaf and Jacob Black each shot a 44 and Jack Vanderhorst carded a 49.
Celina football fans who had to monitor their heart rates last year as their Bulldogs took several games down to the wire before collecting wins may need a checkup already this season.
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The Weekly Area High School Football Preview Section
Two Minute Drill:
Fort Recovery at
Coldwater  
Last meeting (2013): Coldwater, 42-14. The Cavaliers scored 42 points in the span of less