The Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training is forming a committee to draft uniform preparedness plans for school districts in the event of a shooting in a school.

The committee will be made up of sheriffs, police chiefs, Arkansas State Police personnel, members of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and the training staff of the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

The committee will create a uniform training syllabus, and training will be available for school districts and theirrespective law-enforcement agencies by request, according to a news release.

Commission Director Ken Jones will head the committee. He could not be reached Friday afternoon.

The decision came after a training exercise involving a shooting scenario Friday at Greenbrier High School in Faulkner County.

“It became apparent as the training occurred that there needed to be some uniformity for all school districts that may ask for the training,” state police spokesman Bill Sadler said. “There needed to be some standardization because local law enforcement, not state police, wouldbe the first responders.”

The plan crafted for the Greenbrier School District should be crafted as a plan for all school districts who ask for the training, Sadler said.

Friday’s training exercise involved at least 50 law-enforcement officers at the high school, including Greenbrier police and Faulkner County sheriff’s deputies, Greenbrier Police Chief Gene Earnhart said by telephone.

“We had some kids act asvictims and the suspect,” he said. “They’d hide in rooms, and some pretended to be wounded. It was a live-type scenario that we could really confront.”

A state police captain called Earnhart to set up the scenario, and he called the district superintendent to borrow the building, he said.

“You get more of a feel of what’s going to take place” by using an actual school for the exercise, Earnhart said.

Officers entered the high school in search of any shooting victims and the gunman. The exercise allowed theagencies to work together with pooled resources.

“We’re all here to do the same job,” he said. “It went excellent. Everybody worked together, and it was real good, real smooth.”

Earnhart said in schoolshooting training scenarios, agencies can practice all they want, and it may never happen.

“But if it does happen and you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re in trouble,” he said. “The only way to prepare is to train the best you can.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/05/2013